


The Visitors

by H20loo



Series: The Visitors [1]
Category: Kim Possible (Cartoon)
Genre: Action/Adventure, F/F, Ghosts, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-14 10:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 34,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4560963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/H20loo/pseuds/H20loo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kim and Shego join forces when unexpected guests from the past send them on the quest of two lifetimes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Grim, Grinning Ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> To those wondering, yes, this is the same H20loo and Visitors story that is on FF.net and has been for years. I was just encouraged to join this archive by several fans, so I will slowly be posting my stuff here. If you're new, welcome!

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Chapter 1 – Grim Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialize

"Beep, Beep, Be-Beep!"

The four-tone chime rang insistently throughout the bedroom as teen heroine Kim Possible crawled out from her just-crawled-in bed to retrieve the device making the noise.

"What's the sitch, Wade?" she asked, wondering what kind of mission would be necessary at this time of night.

"We had a hit on the site from security at the Middleton Mansion," Wade replied. "Someone has broken in and they called us for help."

"The Middleton Mansion? The museum in the middle of town?" Kim asked, a little perplexed at why anyone would want to break in there. There was nothing extraordinary in there to steal, or so she thought remembered from her compulsory grade school field trips.

"Yup, that's the one," Wade affirmed.

"Okay, I am on it," she said, after a pause. "You can tell them I will be there in 10 minutes."

"Gotcha, Kim. I will let them know and give Ron the heads up." Wade replied and signed off, leaving Kim alone to pull on some clothes and make her way out into the cool night, deciding it was just as easy to walk than it was to bother her parents for a ride.

As she jogged through Middleton, she dredged up all she could remember about the old place. It wasn't much, admittedly; she had been fairly young when she had gone on those field trips and hadn't been much interested in town history anyway. But she seemed to recall that it was built by a rich eccentric for a Middleton resident that she had fallen in love with. They had never married, though, and the woman had died a spinster, living only with a cat and her assistant for company. After she had died, the family, most of who lived in Chicago, had donated it to the city of Middleton to use as a museum. And so began the ritualistic, downright boring pilgrimages of pint-sized Middleton residents whose teachers and parents wanted to acquaint them with history.

The first thing Kim noticed when she got there was that at least two or three lights were on upstairs and there was smoke coming out of what seemed to be an upstairs chimney. That was odd, she mused, and it made her cautious as she approached the house. She used her hairdryer-grappling gun to carefully ascend to a second story balcony, and as luck would have it, the glass door that led out to it was unlocked. Passing quickly out of that room, she crept down the hallway toward the lighted rooms, coming first upon one lit only by a large fire. Curiosity got the better of her and she slipped into the room, not noticing the hidden figure standing very quietly behind the door.

Kim looked around briefly and not seeing any signs of burglary, forced entry or any kind of illegal activity, turned to leave, thinking that the fire belonged to a custodian or curator and that the thief was probably downstairs. She stopped cold when an all-too-familiar voice spoke from the shadows.

"Breaking and entering are we now, Princess?" Shego questioned archly, strolling out of the shadows and into full view. "I should have you arrested."

"I am not the thief here, Shego," Kim retorted. "I was asked to come here, unlike you."

Shego chuckled. "I don't need to be asked, Pumpkin," she stated, amused at being one up on Kim. "This is my house. And since I sure as hell did not ask you to come and you are standing in my parlor, you are the criminal here."

"This house was donated to Middleton to use as a museum," Kim scoffed. "Nice try, Shego."

"The downstairs of the house was loaned to Middleton to use as a museum with the strict understanding that the upstairs could be used at any time by the rightful heir to the place. And that would be me," Shego said, smirking, still enjoying being right when Kim was wrong.

"But if this is your place, then why did you ask for my help?" Kim asked, still perplexed but beginning to believe Shego. She was being far too smug for her ownership of the house to be a lie.

"I didn't ask for your help, Princess," Shego said, exasperated. "I have no idea who called you, but it wasn't me. Would you please get out of my house now?"

"Okay, sure, I guess," Kim answered haltingly, but as she turned to leave, every single light in the mansion went out, including the fire that had been blazing in the fireplace moments before.

"What the-" Shego began, only to be cut off by an overwhelming chill that pervaded the room and the sound of many doors closing at once. She lighted her plasma in an attempt to see something, but as she did so, the lights suddenly came back on and the fire roared back to life. She looked at Kim, who was standing in the middle of the room, only a little closer to the door. Kim looked back at her, a smile playing at her lips.

"Need my help now?" she asked sweetly.

"No," Shego responded tartly. "Now get out."

Kim shrugged. "Suit yourself," she said noncommittally. She turned to leave again, and again, the lights went out and a mini-version of hell broke loose. She stopped in her tracks and the house relented, causing the lights to come back up. She glanced over at Shego, who glared back at her with a baleful expression.

"Tell Nerdlinger to knock it off," she ordered. "I did not call you, I don't need your help, and I don't care how many times he shuts off my power, I am not going to change my mind."

"It wasn't Wade," Kim insisted, and as she spoke, the Kimmunicator went off.

"Kim, is everything okay over there? I am reading massive power fluctuations in the grid supplying the Mansion," Wade asked when she had picked up.

"Something is up over here, Wade," Kim answered. "But the owner over here thinks that you are responsible." She shot Shego a look and Shego shot one right back in response.

Wade shrugged. "Wasn't me, Kim," he said. "But I can check it out for you if you like."

"Please and thank you. Bye, Wade," Kim signed off.

Shego glared at her some more. "Now I expect you'll want to stay until the Geek figures out what the problem is," she huffed.

"Nope. I am leaving now," Kim said unexpectedly. "I'll call you if he finds anything." She walked to the door, but as soon as she touched the doorknob, the lights went off, the room went cold and the door would not budge.

"Guess you are staying, Pumpkin," Shego commented in the darkness, finding the situation amusing now that Kim's plans had been foiled. "That only seems to happen when you try to leave."

"So it would seem," Kim responded, intrigued. Then, feeling like a moron, she addressed the house. "Um, Haunted Middleton Mansion, if I promise not to leave, could you turn the lights back on and let me out to look around?" Nothing happened for a few seconds, as if the house was considering the offer. Then the lights came back on and the door opened of its own accord. "Thanks!" Kim chirped and walked out into the hallway

"Having a nice conversation with my house, Kimmie?" Shego asked sarcastically, following her out of the room.

"Shut up, Shego," Kim said brusquely.

"Rowr!" Shego uttered softly, but loud enough so Kim could hear.

Kim sighed. " I am going to look up around up here," she informed Shego. "You can join me if you want."

"Tempting as that is, Princess, I think I'll take the downstairs" Shego replied and headed off in the direction of the staircase. Kim shrugged and made her way down the opposite end of the hallway. A motion near the bathroom drew her attention and she went into it looking around carefully for anything out of the ordinary. She did not have long to look, for as she turned to the large mirror that hung over the sink, the reflection that stared back at her was not her own. Certain features, the color of the hair and eyes, for instance, were exactly the same, but where Kim was dressed in her standard mission clothes, the person in the mirror was dressed like an Edwardian lady, her red hair swept into a massive bun and her body clothed in a high-collared dress fastened with a cameo.

"Um, Shego?" Kim yelled. "There is something up here that you should see." She made a few movements and noted that her movements were being exactly copied by her twin in the mirror.

"Where are you, Princess?" Shego yelled back.

"In the upstairs bathroom," Kim called.

"Just jiggle the handle," Shego shouted, incorrectly assessing the problem. "That toilet gets temperamental sometimes."

"It is not the toilet! Could you stop being difficult for once and just come up here?"" Kim loudly replied, noticing that the apparition in the mirror looked like she was trying not to laugh. Kim was not nearly as amused.

"All right. Sheez, Princess," Shego grumbled as she climbed the stairs and made her way to the bathroom. "What the hell is so important?" she asked when she got there. Kim pointed to the mirror. "Holy shit," Shego commented, looking not only at Kim's oddly dressed mirror image, but also at her own historically clothed doppelganger that had entered the mirror at the same time she had entered the bathroom. She hade a few hand gestures here and there to see if the mirror "Shego" would do the same, and she did. Intrigued, Shego started making more complicated moves to see if the apparition could keep up. She could, and Kim was unavoidably reminded of the famous "No, I really am your mirror image" scene in that old black and white TV show. Finally, Shego grew tired of the game and raised her left hand. "Copy this, Pinky," she said, preparing to light her plasma.

The plasma was forgotten when Shego glimpsed the ring that her mirror image wore on her left hand. Her eyes widened briefly, and she put her own hand closer to mirror so she could get a better look. She chuckled in disbelief and then glanced at Kim's reflection, thinking. "Raise your left hand, Kimmie," she ordered. "Put your palm toward you." Too interested in what was happening to protest, Kim did so, revealing an identical ring on the mirror "Kim's" left hand. Shego looked at the mirror and frowned. "Nana Sheila?" she asked, hesitantly. The black haired woman in the mirror quirked an eyebrow, smirked exactly as Shego herself would have done, and nodded. Shego broke out into a wide grin, surprising the holy heck out of Kim, who had maybe once or twice seen her with a genuine smile on her face. Not only did she know this woman, Kim realized, she actually liked her.

Shego stared the mirror, her bow knitting. "So, I don't mean to be rude, Nana Sheila," she said, "but why are you in my upstairs toilet?" The black-haired woman glanced at her mirror mate, and the redhead nodded. She produced a red wax pencil and began writing on the mirror. She must have been writing backwards and right-to-left on her side, because for Kim and Shego, it was perfectly intelligible.

"Dearest Junior and Kimmie-Ann," it read, "We apologize for the spectacle we made of ourselves earlier, but it was necessary because what we have to say concerns you both and Kimmie-Ann seemed hell-bent on leaving. We have arranged this meeting tonight because we require your assistance in preventing the destruction of the human race."


	2. Mirror in the Bathroom

Chapter 2- Mirror in the bathroom, please talk free

Kim and Shego stood still for a few moments, carefully re-reading the mirror to make sure that they had read it correctly. Much to Kim's excitement and Shego's dismay, they had. Shego's face instinctively drew up into a pissed-off grimace and she opened her mouth to voice her displeasure. She was cut off when Kim piped in from beside her. "What's the sitch?" she asked, always eager to help, even if she was helping someone who looked eerily like one of the few people in the world she truly disliked.

The Edwardian redhead looked at her fondly and Sheila, as Shego had called her, rolled her eyes. She was ignored, and the mirror was wiped clean. The red wax pencil came back out and a new message was written. "To properly answer your question would take more pencil than I have," it stated. "But, to put it somewhat concisely, in one of our earlier adventures, we inadvertently angered some ancient deities by removing something from their temple that was very precious to them. The both of you, as our relatives, must return it or they will retaliate by destroying the entire world."

"I'm here because we're related. Seems reasonable," Kim mused, noting, that with her looks, the writer did pretty much have to be a relative of some sort. "Where do we start?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Shego said, cutting her off. "I am not in the hero business anymore, Nana Sheila," she protested. "If the world needs saving, go talk to Hego."

Sheila quirked an eyebrow and took the pencil away from the mirror's other occupant. She paused briefly, obviously thinking of what to write. She nodded and Kim could not help but notice that her mirror twin was darned amused by the whole situation, looking as though she knew exactly what was coming. Within seconds, a note appeared on the mirror. "I am afraid that I do not know the exact parlance of today's youth, and I apologize sincerely if I am speaking incorrectly," Sheila had written, "but I believe the phrase I am looking for is 'Tough shit', Junior. You are going to help us regardless of how you view your cantankerous self."

The stunned look on Shego's face was priceless and it was all Kim could do not to start giggling uncontrollably. She settled for a highly amused smirk. Shego noticed and scowled at her. "You are not helping, Princess," she muttered. She glared at the mirror for another few seconds, but in spite of herself, a begrudging grin spread across her face. "Damn, I've missed you and your attitude, Nana Sheila," she said admiringly. Then she sighed. "If I don't help, you both are going to haunt me forever, aren't you?" she challenged. The ghosts in the mirror nodded in amicable agreement. "Fine," she said flatly. "Count me in. What do we have to do?"

"The first thing you must do is retrieve our journals," came the written reply. "They will give you all the information that you will need to retrace our steps. Perhaps more importantly, they will allow us to materialize and speak with you two directly so that we can bypass the discourse via the mirror route." Anticipating Kim's next question, the message continued. "Those journals are not only accounts of our lives, but they contain the essence of our lives as well. Having them here will allow us to regain some of that essence."

"I call bullshit on that one," Shego put in. "Your journals are in this house, Nana Sheila; I've seen them," she pointed out. "Nana Mim's should be here too. If you need those to talk to us, you should be able to."

"You would tend to think that mine are here, seeing as this was my house for many years, but they are not," was the answer. "Kimmie-Ann's family has them."

"Possible has them? Why in the world does Possible have them? Unless… Oh hell no, Nana Mim," Shego protested, horrified.

Kim answered excitedly for her, happy now because all the puzzle pieces had clicked together when Shego addressed the redhead as "Mim." "Because she is Mim Possible, world famous muckraking reporter for The Middleton Gazette." Mim smiled and shot Sheila "I told you she would figure it out" look. Sheila rolled her eyes, unimpressed. "You actually existed?" Kim asked in puzzled wonder. Mim smiled and nodded. "But I thought that was all just a really weird dream. But it wasn't, was it?" Kim realized. Mim smiled somewhat sheepishly, shook her head and blushed.

Shego snorted. "Well, I can kiss whatever doubts I had goodbye," she quipped. "That is a Possible blush if ever I've seen one." That got a silent chuckle out of Sheila and earned them both a glare from their respective redheads. Mim shook her head at Sheila and then turned her gaze to the women in the bathroom.

"We have to retire for the evening, my dears," she wrote. "We will be waiting for you when you return. Also please remember to make haste, for we have a limited time to rectify this situation before it will be devastating for all." And with that, both she and Sheila faded from view, their images slowly replaced with Kim and Shego's actual reflections.

"Well, that was the weirdest thing that has happened to me in a while," Kim stated to no one in particular. "So, 'Junior,' " she said, turning to Shego, "Mind filling me on a few details?"

Shego glowered at her. "First things first, Pumpkin. Only my Nanas call me 'Junior.' No one else has ever called me 'Junior,' and no one ever will. So, even though I have been blackmailed into working with you, I will not hesitate to kick your ass if you ever call me Junior again," she growled.

"Like you could," Kim sniffed and Shego raised her hands.

"Is that a challenge, Princess?" she purred, lighting her plasma.

Kim raised her own fists, but then lowered them, sighing. "No," she said, "it is not a challenge. We have work to do, Shego, and since you actually knew them, I would like to know what you do know about them. Can we call a truce just this once?"

Shego lowered her hands, her mind unwillingly agreeing with Kim that fighting would be counterproductive. Not only would it add on to the time she would have to spend with the teenaged annoyance, if they did too much of it, the world could end, and she would never hear the end of it from Nana Sheila if that happened. "All right, Princess, a truce it is. But only until we clean up this mess," she answered.

"Deal," Kim replied instantly, and they gingerly shook hands on it, all the while eyeing each other suspiciously.

Shego glanced around the bathroom. "Well, you won't learn jack about them up here," she said. "Let's go downstairs." She stopped briefly and smirked, looking at Kim. "Wait a minute. You grew up in Middleton. You should have been to this place at least a few dozen times and they always tell the story on the tour. Not paying very good attention, now were we, Kimmie?"

"It was a long time ago, Shego, and it was only a few times, not a few dozen," Kim huffed.

"Tsk. Would have expected more out of the daughter of a brain surgeon and rocket scientist," Shego taunted. Kim did not reply, but marched determinedly toward the stairs. Shego chuckled and followed after her, almost running into her when Kim stopped abruptly. She followed Kim's gaze into what was the office, and discovered that it was the computer she was looking at, a computer that upon closer inspection was logged onto the Team Possible website. Not only that, the screen was thanking them for using the site and promised that someone would deal with their problem shortly. "Son of a bitch," Shego said.

"Still claim you did not call me?" Kim asked.

"Why would I want to bring the torment of you on my head?" Shego asked acidly.

"Good point," Kim conceded. She shrugged. "Well, they did say they had to talk to the both of us, and it is the quickest way to get me."

Shego looked at her. "You are not actually suggesting that the ghosts of my dead Nanas sent you an e-mail, are you?" she asked incredulously.

"Got a better idea?" Kim shot back.

"No," Shego said sulkily.

"Well then," Kim said, winning the latest verbal battle. "May I please have my promised tour?"

"Nana Sheila, Nana Mim, you are so going to owe me after this," Shego grumbled as she led the way down the stairs. Shego flicked on the lights as they entered the downstairs and led Kim to a large portrait over the fireplace. "Well, Pumpkin, meet Sheila Goshen, my great-grandfather's sister," she said pointing at the portrait.

"She looks just like you," Kim commented. "Well, at least except for the pink skin."

"Yeah, well, no comets in the tree house for her. Anyway, let's see if I have heard the effing tour enough to actually bore you with something." Shego replied. "Let's see; she was born in 1882 to Archibald Goshen and his wife Lillian. She was their second child out of five and she was the only girl. The Goshens were and still are incredibly wealthy due to the fortune that Archibald made by inventing some thing-a-ma-bob that revolutionized the manufacturing industry. Sheila grew up filthy rich, mingled only in the finest circles of Chicago society, and got engaged to some wealthy idiot when she was 19. She decided to strike out on her own for a while and with her parents blessing toured the country before her wedding. Her travels took her to the World Expo, which of course was held in Middleton, and that's where she met Mim. During the Expo, some new invention thingy was stolen and she and Mim worked together to get it back."

Kim interrupted her. "Was the invention thingy the Electrostatic Illuminator?" she asked.

Surprised, Shego paused in her recitation. "Yeah, it was. How in the hell did you know that?" she asked

"Long story. Please continue," Kim demurred.

"So anyway, they track down the thief, discover they like working together and decide to go into business together. Nana Sheila ditches her wealthy idiot, builds this house in Middleton so she and Mim can have a headquarters, and for the next 40 years or so, they gallivant all over the world solving mysteries and having adventures that Mim writes about for the paper. By the time I come along, they have retired and I pretty much just know them as Nana Sheila and Nana Mim, little kid spoilers extraordinaire."

"This house was a headquarters?" Kim asked, puzzled. "I thought it was supposed to be a love nest that some love-struck wealthy eccentric built for the person they were crushing on." Shego shook her head. "Just an urban legend, Kimmie. I guess the tourist board wanted to make the place more spooky like the one that crazy lady built in California." She was about to say more but was prevented when the house made an ungodly noise that caused them both to jump.

"They should see it now," Kim joked, trying to regain her composure. "At this rate, they wouldn't need the story to bring the spooky." She paused, waiting for any more house-based outbursts. When none came, she turned to Shego. "I am going to leave now," she said loudly, again waiting for any disapproval from beyond. When none came, she made her way to the door. "I will track down those journals and meet you back here as soon as I can, Shego," she said, gingerly turning the knob and opening the door.

"I'll be waiting with bated breath, Princess," Shego replied, a sickly sweet smile on her face as she abruptly closed the door.

"Oh, I am sure you will be," Kim muttered. She turned to leave, only to run smack into Ron. "Ron! Where have you been?" she demanded.

"I been trying to get in, KP, I swear!" Ron protested. "The house wouldn't let me. I tried windows and doors, air vents, chimneys, any kind of opening, but nothing worked. Even Rufus couldn't find a way in."

"Nu-uh. No door," Rufus agreed from Ron's pocket.

"So what is up, KP?" Ron asked, curious. "Did I see Shego at the door?"

"Yes, you did. And Ron, it is so the drama," Kim replied tiredly.

"Wanna fill me in on the way home?" Ron queried, sensing that Kim wanted to talk.

"Sure," Kim sighed. "But you are never going to believe it. So it all starts with a call from Wade, right? …" Watching from her window, Shego shook her head as Kim's voice faded from outside. Finally, she had some peace and quiet.

She made her way back upstairs to the parlor, collapsing tiredly on the couch and pulling a blanket around her. Millions of things were chasing around her head: seeing Nana Sheila and Mim again, the annoying job of saving the world they had given them, and of course the shocking revelation of the evening. She was ashamed of herself; she should have seen coming from a mile away and she hadn't, making it much more of a shock to the system than it really should have been. "Damn it all to hell, Nana Mim," she cursed. "Why in the hell did you have to be a Possible?" A ghostly, yet oddly hearty chuckle was the only response. "See, I knew that 'we need the journals to communicate' thing was bullshit," she muttered as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

Two ghostly white forms gazed fondly at her from the door. "She will never forgive us for this, Mim," Sheila commented.

"Oh, but she will, Sheila," Mim replied good-naturedly. "She blusters about now, but Goshen women always rant, rave and carry on until a Possible comes along to make them be still and behave."

Sheila quirked an eyebrow. "And when precisely did you commence to making me be still and behave?" she challenged amicably.

"When I lured you into the domestic life here in Middleton," Mim answered affectionately. She then quirked an eyebrow of her own. "But alas, the domestication was not perfect, for apparently, you do still act out on occasion. What was that fit of pique about earlier? Kimmie-Ann merely mentioned the legend surrounding this place."

"You know how badly I loathe that myth, Mim," Sheila retorted. "I just wanted our young ladies to know it."

"But what is so odious about it? It is essentially true," Mim pointed out.

"I hate it primarily because it denigrates you to being the assistant that I spent the remainder of my spinster life with," Sheila replied sourly. "Even the public record would attest to the fact that we were business partners." Mim looked at her in gentle admonishment. "And," Sheila continued, having no choice but to be truthful in that gentle regard, "it irks me to no end that my life with you is seen as the shattering of all my dreams of love and happiness. You were the dream I never hoped to achieve. I loved you, I courted you and through some miracle of the fates, you chose me and I won you. And yet, that loathsome legend wishes to take that all away and make our companionship nothing but a desperate bid on our parts to stave off loneliness." She snorted in derision, her mood improving now that the tirade was done. "None of the details of that stupid story are right," she sniffed. "We did not have a house cat; we had a clouded leopard for heaven's sake."

"All right. I will concede the myth needs some work, and you were right to voice your displeasure," Mim conceded. "But did you have to leave Ronald out in the cold?" she asked.

"He looks far too much like Jonathan for me to be completely comfortable in his presence," Sheila stated firmly.

"But as you spent the last few moments explaining, you won and I chose you over him. And it happened nearly a century ago. Are you not able to let it go?" Mim teased.

"No," Sheila answered tersely, "and besides, I was looking out more for Junior's interests than my own."

Mim sighed. "We promised each other we would not meddle in their affairs," she reminded her.

"I was not meddling in their affairs," Sheila replied calmly. "I was meddling in Ronald's." Seeing the look on Mim's face, she laughed evilly. "Still think you domesticated me?" she goaded.

"Sometimes I do wonder," Mim retorted and Sheila smiled. "We have to go now, my love," Mim said. "We have been here too long and we need to get back to our own world until Kimmie-Ann returns."

"I know," Sheila replied. "I just miss her," she said, glancing over at the sleeping Shego.

"We will return soon," Mim promised and held out her hand. Sheila took it and they left the mansion to return to where they rightfully belonged.


	3. Mad Madam Mim

Chapter 3 – The Marvelous, Magnificent Mad Madam Mim

Kim stumbled wearily into the kitchen the next morning. She hadn't exactly wanted to get up; she had gotten in extremely late last night and not slept well besides, but she had heard her father tinkering around downstairs and she needed to ask him a few questions about Mim and where her journals might be.

"Morning, Kimmie-cub!" her father called out cheerfully when she came in.

"Morning, Dad," she mumbled, collapsing into a chair and resting her hands on the kitchen table. "Do you have a minute?" she asked.

"Sure, anything for my Kimmie-cub," Mr. Dr. Possible replied. He looked at her more carefully, noting the haggard appearance. "Are you okay, Kim?" he asked, concerned.

"Sorta," she answered. She paused, thinking of the best way to explain it to him without looking like a complete nutcase. "So, I had a mission to the Middleton Mansion last night, and I need to ask some questions about family history," she began.

"Oh, this is about Great-Aunt Miriam," her father interrupted, relieved that it wasn't about some boy. Kim obviously was under some sort of stress, and if some boy had caused it, well, he was going to learn about rocket propulsion systems very, very quickly.

"Um, yeah, actually it is," Kim said, surprised.

"What would you like to know?" her father queried affably.

"I guess for starters why no one has ever bothered to mention her," Kim answered.

"Well, probably because you never asked, Kimmie-cub," her father pointed out, obviously hedging. "Kids nowadays are not interested in such stuff." Kim looked skeptical, pinning her father with a glare. Mr. Dr. Possible coughed, knowing he was busted. "All right. We did not want to tell you about Mim until you were older because we were afraid she would be a bad influence," he confessed.

"Bad influence?" Kim echoed. "Why? Because she was wanted for theft?" she asked, remembering her dream.

"Theft? Mim? Mim never stole anything in her whole life," her father stated, puzzled where Kim gotten that impression. Then he had a revelation where Kim might have gotten it. "Are you talking about that whole unpleasant business at the 1902 Expo?"

"Yes," Kim agreed. "You know, the Electrostatic Illuminator was stolen, Mim was accused and she ran off."

"Mim never ran off," Mr. Dr. Possible replied. "She was accused and did leave Middleton for a while, but that was to track the real thief. Wait," he said, stopping himself. "Her journal will tell it better."

"We have her journal?" Kim asked excitedly.

"We have a journal," her father corrected as they went into the living room. "Your Nana has some of them and the rest have been donated to museums and universities." Kim grimaced, hoping she did not need to collect them all.

"Here we are," Mr. Dr. Possible announced, pulling out a book that was the thickness of an unabridged dictionary and the size of a coffee table book. It was nicely bound and gold lettering announced that "1901-1902" was the title. As he looked through it searching for the right entry, Kim took the opportunity to find out why Mim had been deemed a bad influence.

"So, Dad, why didn't you tell me about Mim?" she asked as casually as she could even though most of her was engulfed in rampant curiosity.

"Well, it is mostly your own fault, Kimmie," he answered truthfully.

"My fault? How is it my fault?" she asked, offended and perplexed all at the same time.

"You were, um, how can I say it, very spirited as a youngster and your Mom and I thought it would be a bad idea if you heard stories of how your Aunt Miriam would jump off of waterfalls, tame wild animals and barnstorm with a bi-plane. You didn't need any more encouragement to be adventuresome," he explained. "Of course we had no idea that you would do most of those things before you were seventeen."

"When were you going to tell me?" Kim asked wryly.

"At this point, we figured we would tell you when you turned eighteen. That's when you are set to inherit her estate," her father answered.

"Estate?" Kim questioned. "Why would she leave her estate to me? She did not even know me."

"Mim was still alive when you were born, Kimmie," her father contradicted. "And she loved you right from the very beginning. She called you Kimmie-Ann. Only person that ever did, too," he mused as he turned pages. Kim stood there quietly, digesting this tidbit of information. "Here is the entry we want," he said, pointing to the page.

Saturday, May 3rd, Nineteen Hundred and Two

Today was perhaps one of the worst I have ever experienced. I was accused of theft, arrested and incarcerated, all because the mulish Chief Barkin refused to listen to what had actually happened in the Exhibition Hall. As I wrote about yesterday, Dr. Demens was demonstrating his newest invention in the Hall today and Jonathan and I attended the lecture. Immediately something did not sit right with me and I found myself convinced that it would be purloined. I was right, and I was able to track the thief to Ferris wheel. We tussled, but I was unable to gain the upper hand and the thief (a woman; most shocking, that) was able to escape. Through logic that is unique unto his own self, Barkin became convinced that I had done the deed and hauled me off to the hoosegow. As of right now, I have a preliminary trial set for Monday during which I hope to protest my innocence to the presiding jurist.

Mim was livid. Never in the whole of her life had she been treated so insolently, and she was angrier than Jonathan could ever remember seeing her, which was saying something considering her reputation for temper. "This is preposterous!" she declared as she sat in the police station, her emerald eyes flashing. Chief Barkin looked at her dispassionately, convinced from the testimony of Dr. Demens that she was the culprit.

"You would do well to be quiet, Mim," Jonathan whispered. "Barkin will throw you in a cell if you do not restrain yourself."

"I would like to see him make the attempt," Mim said darkly. "I am a respected member of the community that was trying to assist in the capture of a thief. I have a witness that declares under oath that he saw the true fiend yet because of the pompous arrogance of the local constabulary and their prejudice against the young, here I sit, accused of a crime. Be still I will not."

At that moment, a voice cut through the room. "You are free to go, Miss Possible," he said, and the room turned to see Middleton's only judge, His Honor Bertram Director standing in the midst of them, the eye he did not lose in the war glaring at Barkin.

"But, Your Honor, I must protest," Chief Barkin cut in. "She is the prime suspect in an ongoing theft investigation."

"Codswallop," the judge replied. "I have seen your notes, Barkin, and you have nothing against her. Miss Possible and her family are some of Middleton's most trusted citizens, and I will not have you harassing her because of some hunch." Barkin sat back down, subdued. The judge turned to Mim. "Please be in my courtroom at 9:00AM sharp on Monday, young lady," he ordered. "Bring your witness and we should be able to get this cleared up." Turning to leave, he paused briefly as a coughing spell came on. "And please tell your mother that I will be by to pick up my remedies."

"Of course, Your Honor. Thank you," Mim said respectfully.

"Not a problem, my dear," he replied and walked out the door. Mim followed, giving Barkin a contemptuous glare as she walked out.

"You should not provoke him so," Jonathan chided.

"I have more important things to deal with than Barkin," Mim retorted. "The stolen invention needs to be recovered and the thieves tracked down."

"You are not a police officer, Mim," Jonathan protested. "You should leave such things to the men."

"I should," Mim agreed, "but I am not going to." Jonathan chuckled, knowing it was useless to argue.

Monday morning turned out much as Judge Director said it would. Wayne Load, though a 10-year old, made a convincing witness, and Dr. Demens freely admitted that he had been hit from behind and never saw Mim remove the Electrostatic Illuminator from the Hall, leaving Mim to argue that the real thief had run off with it while she was helping him. Barkin could do nothing to counter her argument, so the charges were dropped and Mim was discharged from custody.

Her first stop after winning her freedom was the office of the Middleton Gazette. The woman she had grappled with had been unnervingly familiar, and Mim surmised that the best place to begin her search would be the Gazette archives. It proved to be a more formidable task than she had realized, and she spent the remainder of the spring and the beginning of the summer searching through yellowing stacks of newsprint only to find nothing. She was on the cusp of going mad when Jonathan, in his own blundering way provided the answer.

"How is your progress, Mim?" he asked, bringing with him a slice of the latest food craze to tickle his culinary fancy.

"Not well," she replied tersely. She continued to work for another few moments until the odor of what Jon had brought with him had permeated her small workspace. "What is that?" she asked, looking up.

"I believe the vendor called it 'pizza,'" Jonathan answered, taking another bite. Mim was about to respond when she noticed the newspaper that it was wrapped in. She gave a start and promptly snatched it away from Jonathan, causing his pizza slice to fall on the floor. "Have a care, Mim," he protested, pulling the slice off the floor and dusting it off. After a moment's inspection, he continued eating.

Mim ignored him, instead spreading out the abducted newspaper on the desk. She read the article and caption carefully before breaking out into a wide grin. "I knew I had seen you before." Jonathan glanced over her shoulder. It was the society page, not of the Gazette, but of the Chicago Newsmaker, and the headline announced the engagement of one of Chicago's most prominent young debutantes, a Miss Sheila Goshen. "That was my assailant at the Expo," she stated.

Jonathan looked at her skeptically. "If this article is to be believed, she comes from one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in Chicago," he noted. "Why would she need to be a thief?"

Mim dismissed his objections with the wave of her hand. "The thrill of the chase, the rebellion against authority, I have no idea, Jon," she said, her words coming in a rush due to her excitement. "I must get home. I need to pack and then make haste to the train station."

"Train station? Where are you going?" Jonathan asked.

"To Chicago of course," she answered distractedly as she bolted for the door. "I will call when I get back."

"Mim, wait!" Jonathan protested, but she was already too far away to hear him. "But this paper is a year old!"

Chicago, Illinois, several days later

Mim fidgeted in her seat as she waited for the mistress of the house to attend her. The trip to Chicago had been no problem, and upon her arrival, she had looked up a colleague at the Newsmaker to inquire about the Goshen family and how she might arrange a meeting with them. When told aboutthe family, sheheard nothing but good things about them and their business. Archibald's workers were some of the highest paid and his factory had a reputation for cleanliness and safety that was unrivaled in Chicago's entire industrial sector.

Sheila herself was another matter, for she had also been updated as to the status of the impending Goshen nuptials. Sheila, it seemed, was restless and free-spirited and had taken off soon after her engagement had been announced. Her family had not heard from her in months until she suddenly came back to Chicago about two months ago. She had been somewhat of a recluse since and had been rarely spotted outside of her family's mansion.

Mim had related the tale of the stolen invention to her colleague, leaving out the specifics of Sheila's involvement in the caper, saying only that she would like to speak with her regarding the incident, and her colleague had been happy to arrange a meeting with Lillian Goshen, Sheila's mother. So, here she sat, waiting in opulent splendor to tell an upstanding family that their daughter was a thief cavorting with strange men. She was not looking forward to the task.

"Miss Possible, it is so wonderful to finally meet you," Lillian Goshen said as she came into the room.

Mim rose. "Thank you so very much for being willing to see me," she said, turning to Lillian and offering a hand.

"Of course we would see the famous Mim Possible," Lillian said, taking it with a smile. "Your insightful articles on the deplorable conditions in today's factories were the talk of the dinner table for weeks."

Mim blushed slightly at the praise. "Well, thank you very much, ma'am," she said modestly.

Lillian chuckled. The young lady was adorable, polite and obviously well educated. It was quite the wonder that she should be asking after Sheila, who though very intelligent herself, always seems to associate with the biggest imbeciles in the world. "So, Miss Possible, I hear you would like to speak with my daughter," she said.

"I would very much, yes, ma'am. She is a key witness in a theft that we recently had in my hometown," Mim replied somewhat truthfully, liking the woman immensely already and not wishing to expose her daughter for the thief she was.

"And what was stolen that it required to make a trip all the way to Chicago?" Lillian inquired politely. "It must have had great value."

"It was an invention, Ma'am," Mim answered. "One that has great potential to do public harm if not recovered."

Lillian appeared thoughtful, as if she knew Mim might not be telling the entire truth. "I see. Well, Miss Possible, you are in luck, for Sheila is in residence today. I will go fetch her so that you two might talk," she said, an interesting expression in her eyes.

"I would be much obliged, ma'am," Mim said and rising, disappeared from the room. Mim did not have long to wait for less than 10 minutes later, she returned, and with her was indeed the woman that Mim had been searching for, the woman who had stolen the Electrostatic Illuminator and nearly thrown her off the Ferris wheel.

"Good day, Miss Goshen," Mim said politely, her expression betraying nothing. "It is so nice to see you again."

"As it is to see you," Sheila replied, a mildly polite smile on her face even as she unintentionally paled at Mim's recognition of her. Her mother quirked an eyebrow, sensing the undercurrent passing between them. She decided it was best to leave well enough alone and so made her excuses, leaving the two of them. As soon as she had departed, Sheila got right to the point. "Why are you here?" she asked abruptly.

"Because you committed a crime that I was subsequently arrested for and I do not like being made a fool of," Mim responded acerbically. " I am here to see that the invention is returned and you are brought to justice."

"I have no idea where the fool thing is," Sheila stated. "And if you think that a nobody like yourself can accuse me of a crime and actually have me arrested, I would be delighted to see you try."

"I am a nobody with a readership of thousands and a reputation for bringing the most powerful of malcontents to bear for their actions," Mim countered.

The sheer force of will coursing through the room was a wonder to behold. On the one side was a desire for justice and the retribution of wounded pride, countered on the other side by arrogance and a sense of entitlement. Neither woman was sure if she could hold her position, though. Mim, in spite of her boast, was unsure if she would be able to surmount the power found in the Goshens' wealth. Sheila, for her part, was unsure if her wealth would be able to protect her from Mim's powerful connections to the media and law enforcement. The tension was compounded by the fact that neither one was willing to leave the situation unresolved; too much was as stake for the both of them. Mim wanted someone else to admit to the crime, for even now in Middleton there was talk that she had only been freed because her family's relationship to Judge Director. Sheila, wanting to forget that chapter in her life entirely, did not want Mim to have such damaging information in her possession that she could reveal at any time. So, even as they glared at one another balefully, they both came to the same conclusion. Compromise would have to be reached or both of their reputations could suffer for it.

"What if I implicated Lipsky?" Sheila offered, deciding to end the stalemate. "He was the 'mastermind' behind the heist, and with my testimony you are sure to get a conviction."

"And you just get to walk away from the whole affair with no blot on your record and minimal inconvenience to you? I think not," Mim scoffed.

"Think about it, Miss Possible," Sheila wheedled. "You have no guarantee that you can even get me arrested, much less convicted. With my cooperation, Lipsky will be sitting in jail within the year and your sterling reputation will be restored."

Mim frowned. Miss Goshen was right. She hated the idea of a criminal walking free, but as the saying went, a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush. "All right, I will accept your offer, but only if you help me find the Electrostatic Illuminator and return it to Dr. Demens, if you help me find Lipsky and apprehend him, and if Lipsky is convicted and sent to prison," she stated, her tone indicating that no other offers would be given or accepted.

Now it was Sheila's turn to frown. That was a numerous collection of "ifs," and Sheila was debating whether her and her family's reputation could survive intact if she was merely tried for larceny and not convicted of it. She decided quickly that it would be better for all concerned if she avoided a trial all together, and she could do that by working with the Possible woman. Lipsky was such an idiot that he would be easy to snare and then she would be free of the whole business forever. She hated the thought of helping Mim, but if those were her conditions, then she was willing to live with it. "I will agree to those terms," she said.

Mim was surprised, but she hid it well. "Then perhaps you should pack for Middleton," she replied bossily.

"Perhaps I should," Sheila agreed snidely and retreated back up the stairs. Mim watched her go, wondering all the while how this strange partnership would play itself out.

As it turned out, it worked out much better than either of them was anticipating. The Electrostatic Illuminator was discovered in the sign of the defunct taco stand after Mim and Sheila reenacted their fight and calculated its trajectory using a model built to scale of the Expo. It was returned to Dr. Demens with little difficulty, but ironically, he dismantled it soon after its return because he had still not thought of a use for it.

The apprehension of Lipsky turned out to be less simple. They started their searchwith his mother, who, thinking that Mim was doing an article on her brilliant son, gave them his whereabouts. He was no longer at that location, however, causing Mim and Sheila to spend a good portion of summer and a bit of fall to actually track him down. As Sheila predicted, once they brought him to trial, her testimony sealed his fate and he was convicted. She was able to pass off her own involvement in the affair as that of concerned passerby, owing a great deal to the fact that Wayne Load had not seen the fracas but had only heard it and thus could not identify her as the thief.

With her duty to Mim dispatched, Sheila at last left Middleton to return to Chicago, and Mim returned to life as a reporter by writing up Lipsky's trial for the Gazette. Much to their mutual amazement, however, it was not long before they realized how much they had enjoyed working together, and improbable though it was, the few weeks' separation actually made them miss each other and their odd antagonistic friendship. Mim was the first to acknowledge this new development and wrote to Sheila in Chicago. Sheila wrote back and soon correspondence was flitting back and forth between the two of them. It was decided that they should meet after the holidays just to see one another and perhaps discuss the possibility of Sheila assisting Mim in her duties a reporter.

Wednesday, December 31st, Nineteen Hundred and Two

And so it is I find myself anticipating the New Year and my meeting with Sheila. I would have never thought it possible that she and I would find ourselves friends, but we here we are, and I reckon, as Father used to say, "Anything is possible for a Possible."

Kim closed the journal as the plane carrying her to Nana's retirement villa touched down. Her mind was still trying to process all that she had read, but at least one thing was clear: her dream for the most part, had been accurate. Lipsky and Sheila had stolen the Electrostatic Illuminator and Mim had been falsely accused of it. Unlike her dream, however, Mim had not run, but had taken off to find the real thieves, and had in the end been exonerated. She wasn't quite sure how she felt about the deal between Mim and Sheila that had accomplished this, but at least she did see why Mim might have agreed to it. She sighed. The journal had been a fascinating read, but it had mentioned nothing about anything that could cause the end of the world, meaning it was the wrong one for finding out anything useful about her mission. Kim hoped that Nana had one that could help, or they might run of time while she was hunting for the right one.


	4. What You Don't Know

Chapter 4 – What you don't know, might hurt you

"Those two seem to be all of the ones I have, Kimberly," Nana called from the bedroom of her pad at the spacious Chez Leisure. She walked into the living room to find Kim looking askance at their size, the both of them having roughly the same huge dimensions as the one she already had in her possession. "Mim was a writer, Kimberly," she reminded her. "She tended to write a great deal about everything that happened to her."

"So I see," Kim agreed, picking up the one entitled "1903-1904" and flipping to a random entry.

October 17th, 1904

My self-imposed month of solitude ended abruptly last night when I spotted Sheila skulking about outside of my cabin. As soon as she realized that I had seen her, she panicked like a scared rabbit and ran off into the woods. I gave chase and soon tracked her to a small clearing not far from the cabin. It took her a few seconds to notice my presence, and when she did, she looked ready to flee again. I did not want that, so I took the legs out from under her, grappling with her until we came to rest with me perched on her chest. I looked down at her and saw real fear in those beautiful emerald eyes, an emotion that I had seen naught but a few times. I knew what she was afraid of, that I would rip her still-beating heart out of her chest like I had done when I became engaged to Jon. My choice had been made long ago though, and so I sought to assuage those fears as best I could. I kissed her, and she kissed back, the mix of relief and joy she felt at my actions coming through in her caress. I must confess that what I remember coherently from this point is minimal. I have no idea how we made it back to the cabin or how we divested ourselves of our clothing. As of right now, I can only remember the exquisite sight of her nude body and the intoxicating feel of her under my fingertips…

Kim stopped right there, shutting the journal, setting it down and backing away. She could feel the mother of all blushes spreading swiftly across her skin and she was powerless to stop it. A thousand thoughts ran through her head, most of them fairly typical and along the lines of "Mim was gay!" but some completely unwanted and having to do with a certain green-skinned villainess.

Nana noticed the sudden rush of color to Kim's skin. It was actually difficult not to, considering that even the strip of tummy peeking out from her crop top was bright red. She glanced at the particular volume Kim had been reading and nodded, knowing instantly what was causing the embarrassment. Mim did write about everything "I take it Mim did not exactly let on that she and Sheila were involved?" Nana asked, putting it diplomatically to avoid causing Kim any further embarrassment.

"Um, no," Kim sputtered, the passage still burned into her brain and refusing to let go. She scrubbed her face with her hand in an attempt to alleviate her blush, but it did little good. She was a little surprised at her reaction. Sure, she had just found out that one of her long-ago relatives was gay, but no big. She knew several gay people and did not have a problem with them. Why was Mim being gay was different? Kim decided that it was just the shock of reading something like that in a journal from a hundred years ago. People back then were different, like your parents, and they did not do stuff like that. They especially weren't supposed to write about it. She had just been caught off guard and now she was fine with it. Her discomfort absolutely nothing to do with the fact that there were a boatload of similarities between she and Mim and her relationship with Shego was complicated to the extreme, nope, not at all. Settling herself down, she addressed her grandmother. "So the legend of the Mansion is true?" she asked. "Sheila built it for Mim?"

"Yes, but that is not the whole story," her grandmother replied. She was going to elaborate, but just then a horn honked from the outside.

"Well, that is my ride. Thanks for the journals, Nana," she said, as she began loading the books into a duffle she had brought for that purpose. "I am sure they will help."

"Not a problem, dear," her grandmother replied, and when Kim was ready to go, she gave her a hug. "Good luck with saving the world, Kimberly-Ann. I know you can do it."

"Thanks, Nana," Kim said sincerely. "But I do have Sheila's great-grandniece to help me."

"That reminds me. Say hi to Shego for me, will you? And tell her that I will e-mail that Drakken fellow my recipe for lemon squares soon," she requested.

"Sure thing, Nana," Kim said as she walked out the door. Then processing what her grandmother had actually said, she turned around. "You know who Sheila's great-grandniece is?" she asked.

"Of course, dear. She looks exactly like Sheila," her grandmother answered matter-of-factly. The horn sounded again. "Go now or you will miss your ride," she ordered. "Have a safe trip, Kimberly-Ann."

"Bye, Nana," Kim called as she ran toward the plane.

"Bye, dear," Nana called back, waving as Kim boarded the plane.

Middleton, several hours later

Kim walked up to the Mansion, Ron, Rufus and journals in tow. She hadn't seen the need to bring them on the short trip to Florida, but now that the mission was going to start in earnest, they needed to be there.

The first thing she noticed was the prominent "Closed until Further Notice" sign affixed to the door. Ignoring it, she rang the bell. "Can't you read?" came the bellow from inside. "Piss off!"

"It's us, Shego!" Kim yelled back.

"Well, why didn't you say so, Princess?" Shego retorted as she opened the door.

"You didn't give me a chance," Kim shot back. Shego was about to get really testy when Ron cut in.

"So," he began, having made his way indoors and installed himself in front of the fireplace looking back and forth between Shego and the portrait of Sheila, "if your nickname is 'Junior,' does that mean your real first name is Sheila?" he asked, blithely unaware that Shego was already annoyed and asking her a stupid question would push her completely over the edge into pissed off.

Before she could answer, though, an imperious Shego-like voice from the back of the room answered for her. "Keep asking stupid questions, Ronald, and I will escort you out myself," Sheila stated, surprising them all with her unexpected arrival. Looking completely normal, if somewhat transparent and old-fashionedly clothed, she glided over to where Kim stood unpacking Mim's journals. "Excellent job, Mim-jay," she congratulated her. "These are precisely the ones we need."

"Mim-jay?" Kim and Ron questioned simultaneously, but Sheila had turned her attention to her great-grandniece.

"Where are mine, Junior?" she asked.

"Right here, Nana," Shego answered, holding a much thinner stack of books aloft. Sheila glided over to her. Shego scowled and fidgeted, obviously having something to say but not wanting to say it.

"Say what you will, Junior," Sheila said, amused at her discomfort. "You obviously have something you wish to discuss."

Shego fidgeted some more, but at last came out with it. "Could you stop calling me 'Junior'?" she asked gruffly. "No one calls me that anymore."

Sheila arched an eyebrow and Shego winced. She knew she shouldn't have asked. "No, Sheila Miriam Goshen, I will not stop calling you 'Junior,'" Sheila stated. "You are named after me, I gave you that nickname, and since I am already dead, there is precious little you can do to make me cease and desist."

"Sorry I asked, Nana," Shego muttered.

"As well you should be," Sheila scolded mildly. "But you had to ask. You would not be my Junior if you did not ask," she said, the fond smile she carried on her face evident in her voice.

Shego smiled back. "You taught me to be like that, you know," she pointed out. "No one else came close to your attitude and you have no idea how much I've missed you, Nana."

"And I have missed you, Junior," Sheila replied. They looked at one another for a few moments and it became clear to Kim that if there was one person in the entire universe that tough-as-nails Shego cared about, it was her Nana Sheila.

"Peas in a pod, those two," said a voice by her ear, causing Kim to jump. She turned to see a figure that could only be Mim standing beside her. "That girl has been nothing but trouble since the day she was born, but she has always been the apple of Sheila's eye," Mim explained. She looked at Kim briefly and then smiled. "But I can hardly say much. You were my pride and joy when you were a baby. And you turned out exactly as I thought you would: smart, beautiful and able to best anyone who stands in your path."

Kim was touched and, admittedly, a little weirded out that someone she had only known about for a little while knew and cared so much about her. "How long did you know us?" she asked. "Because Shego obviously knows you and I don't even remember you."

"Junior was about seven when we passed on. She would spend her summers here in Middleton with us, which is how the three of us became so close," Mim answered. "You, on the other hand, were only about one when we died, so we never really got to know you."

"Hm," Kim mused. It made sense; Shego was older than she was. "I guess I only have one more question. Why did Sheila call me 'Mim-jay'?"

"She always called you that as shorthand for Miriam Junior," Mim replied. "You were not named after us like Junior, but Sheila was convinced that you would grow up to look just like me. It was one of the few times she was right."

"I heard that," Sheila called from the other side of the room.

"And I meant you to," Mim replied saucily.

Sheila shook her head. The universe would end before Mim would let her have the last word. "All right ladies…" she began. Ron coughed. "And Ronald…" she continued dismissively. Rufus coughed. "And naked mole rat, we need to get started."

"Where do we start?" Kim asked.

"With my 1905-1906 journal," Mim replied and Kim fished it out from the pile that Nana had given her. "Those entries should start in the spring."

"What entries, Nana Mim?" Shego asked.

"The ones pertaining to the Temple of the Avenging Prism. It is where we tracked Lipsky down to when he was scheming to take over the world," Mim said nonchalantly.

"Lipsky? Drakken's family is involved in this too?" Shego asked incredulously, not having read the journal like Kim had.

"Yes," Mim replied, giving them all a brief synopsis. "Sheila worked for him briefly, but then turned state's evidence against him, sending him to prison. He was quite sore at her for that and vowed revenge. While in prison, he unearthed a legend about a mystical amulet that would give the wearer the power to rule the world. He escaped from prison and decided to go after it, thinking it was the answer to all of his problems. Sheila and I caught wind of his scheme and thwarted him in his attempt."

Shego had only heard one thing. "You worked for a Lipsky?" she asked Sheila. Sheila nodded. "When you were a thief, before you met Nana Mim, you worked for a Lipsky," Shego clarified. Sheila nodded again. Shego briefly looked proud, but then after looking at Kim, looked vaguely disturbed.

Kim got them back on track. "So how did you beat him?" she asked.

"We tracked him down to the temple, fought over the amulet and whipped him pretty thoroughly," Mim related. "We were slightly concerned that he would make another attempt to possess it though, and so we took the amulet with us. That turned out to be an enormous error, because it is the absence of the amulet from the temple that has set in motion Earth's destruction."

"And we have to find the stupid thing and put it back before these all-powerful crybabies throw their little temper tantrum," Shego guessed.

"Exactly," Mim responded. "The journals will lead you back to the temple and tell you how to circumvent the traps. I was very careful to write very precise descriptions of where we started from and where we went, and Sheila photographed anything that might be considered a landmark. It should not be that difficult."

"What about the amulet? We need to find that before we can do anything," Kim reminded them.

"Oh, that," Sheila said dismissively. "Junior knows where that is."

This was news to Shego. "I do?" she questioned

"You do," Sheila confirmed. "You wore it as a necklace for most of your childhood, though I doubt you ever really realized what it was. There is a picture of it in my journal if you don't remember it."

"Oh, I remember it," Shego countered. "I remember that Mother took it away from me after we got pummeled by the comet because she said it was far too valuable of an artifact for a trouble magnet like me to get destroyed. She could never figure out why you gave it to me."

"We gave it to you because you were our Junior and we wanted you to have something of ours that was unique," Mim said, smiling at Shego. Shego grinned back, pleased that Mim was finally paying attention to her and not Kim.

"We also thought you would keep it away from Lipsky," Sheila interjected wryly, an ironic smile on her face. Shego looked mildly embarrassed. "About that comet," she continued, suddenly switching gears, "Mim and I apologize sincerely for that."

"And why would you have to apologize for that?" Shego asked suspiciously, her happy mood evaporating.

"Because the current threat is not the first time they have retaliated," Sheila admitted. "The comet was a sort of warning shot that they fired when the eighty-four years we had to put the amulet back expired. It went unheeded, though, because a) no one had any idea that your necklace and its arrival were linked and b) it gave you superpowers rather than killing you."

At Sheila's admission, Shego removed herself from the conversation and left the room to find some privacy. She needed quiet because she needed to think. That comet had made her a freak, and she knew she should be pissed off about it, but she did not know if she wanted to be angry at her Nanas for causing her to be a freak, if she wanted to be angry with those stupid petty gods for making her a freak, or if she even truly gave a shit that she was a freak. As she sat there thinking, she debated within herself. She forgave her Nanas pretty quickly. They had no idea that their gift would do that to her or they never would have give it to her; she was certain of that. And as far as being a freak, she admitted to herself that she really did quite enjoy the power that came with her freakishness. If anyone was to blame, it was the gods, and well, she was going to be at their temple soon. She chuckled. They were going to find out really soon that paybacks were a bitch. Her mind made up, she rejoined the group, still chuckling. Sheila looked over at her, quirking a concerned eyebrow. Shego nodded her assurance that she was okay, and Sheila smiled.

"Eighty-four years?" Kim was asking as she came back into the room.

Mim was the one to answer. "Their calendar runs on 12-year cycles and we were given 7 of those cycles to put it back. Now that another 12-year cycle has almost past and the amulet is still not in its proper place, the punishment is more severe."

"How do you know all this?" Ron asked, his mind trying to get around all the facts.

"You have no idea what a wealth of information there is to be had in the afterlife," Mim responded sardonically. "And security is fairly lax for getting back up here, so we slipped through to this dimension in order to warn you. Because we had lived here so long, it was relatively easy to focus our energy here and exist within the confines of the house. In order to materialize, though, Sheila and I needed some sort of focal point for our energy and our journals were the perfect thing. We are still not quite sure of how the whole process works, but we are here, able to speak with you, and that is what matters most."

"True," Kim agreed. "So, Shego, where is the amulet?"

"Last I heard, it was at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago," Shego responded. "When Mother took it away from me, she gave it to them."

"We need to go get it," Kim said.

"I think you would be better served to start going through the journals and fashioning a map from my notes and Sheila's photographs," Mim answered. "You will have questions about particulars and we should be here to answer them, but we cannot this dimension much longer and it will take some time for us to get back here."

"All right!" Ron cheered. "I have always wanted to be a map-drawer person guy."

"Cartographer," Sheila corrected, wanting to add "idiot" but refraining due to the look Mim was giving her.

"Yeah, that!" Rufus chimed in.

Sheila rolled her eyes and Kim noted how much like Shego the response was. "Let's get to work," she suggested before Ron said something else to annoy Sheila.

"Good idea," Shego said quickly, and they all sat down at the large table downstairs, journals in hand.

The first thing Kim did was to call Wade, thinking he would be able to distill all the information into a coherent digital map. He was able to, but because the information was buried in the minutiae of Mim and Sheila's everyday life, it took a while to extract, and soon an interaction pattern emerged between the ghosts and the living. Mim and Sheila communicated by good naturedly bickering back and forth. Sheila and Shego communicated by slinging sarcastic zingers back and forth. Mim and Kim communicated by constantly asking each other questions and being thrilled with the responses. And Sheila communicated with Ron by politely insulting him.

After a while, though, even the banter began to fade as the task began to drag. They had a decent working map, but now they were trying to figure out all the traps that Mim and Sheila had evaded getting into the temple. Kim, who was in charge of reading Mim's journal, sighed as she flipped yet another page in search of something useful. "For Pete's sake, Aunt Mim, did you have to describe each and every jungle creature you came across?" she asked, exasperated.

Mim shrugged. "I tended to be verbose about everything," she admitted.

"No kidding," Kim muttered under her breath, thinking of what she had read at Nana's. She hadn't intended for anyone to hear, but Shego had picked right up on both her words and their hidden meaning.

"Thinking about a particular entry, are we, Pumpkin?" Shego teased.

"No," Kim replied shortly, but the blush that was spreading over her skin said otherwise.

"See, I think you are lying," Shego stated with a smirk. "What, did Princess read something that rocked her little world?"

"Well, it wouldn't have if you had bothered to tell me that they were lovers instead of giving me that crap about the myth being an urban legend," Kim retorted.

"Well, see, I was afraid it might warp your fragile little mind, so I gave you the sanitized tour version of events," Shego replied patronizingly.

Kim harrumphed. "I might have a fragile little mind, but at least I knew Mim was a Possible. How do you miss something that obvious, anyway?"

"They didn't exactly look like us when I knew them, Princess," Shego pointed out. "They were older than dirt by then." Then realizing what she had said, she made a hasty, halfhearted apology. "No offense, guys."

"None taken, dear," Mim called out pleasantly from the side of the room where she and Sheila were watching the fireworks.

"I'd like to see how fabulous you look at 102, Junior," Sheila added.

In spite of her anger, Shego paused to smirk at the jibe. Then she went back to the fight with Kim. "And besides," she continued, "as a kid, it was pretty obvious to me that they were married, and if they were married, they had to share a last name. Since I did know that Nana Sheila was a Goshen, Nana Mim had to be one too." Kim didn't look convinced. Shego snorted. "Trust me, Princess. I had known she was a Possible-"

"You would have what, Junior?" Mim interrupted, causing Shego to completely lose her train of thought.

"I don't know. But it would have been something bad," Shego finished petulantly. Kim chuckled. The transformation from fighting-mad adult to petulant kid had been instantaneous when Mim spoke, and it amused her to no end. "Don't say a word, Princess," Shego warned through gritted teeth. Kim wisely stayed silent.

"Well, on that note, I think we should wrap up for the evening," Sheila suggested, seeing that tempers were wearing thin and some rest was in order.

"Couldn't agree more, Nana Sheila," Shego responded, unceremoniously hauling Ron to his feet and escorting both him and the already-standing Kim to the door. "I will pick you up tomorrow at 7AM. Bring your mission clothes, but wear something nice because we may have to impress some people." She glanced at Ron. "If you want the sidekick and the naked rat to come along, have them dressed and at your house at 7, too."

"Why? Where are we going?" Kim asked, forgetting to protest their departure when there was still work to be done with the journals.

"Doy, Princess, to Chicago. We have to get the amulet back," Shego said.

"What if the museum doesn't want to give it back?" Kim queried.

"Then we go to plan B," Shego responded.

"And what is Plan B?" Kim rejoined.

"You ask too many questions, Pumpkin. Good night," Shego said shortly, unceremoniously shoving them outside and shutting the door in their faces.

"Well, you heard her, Ron. Be dressed and at my house at 7. And I would wear a suit," Kim instructed as they walked away.

"Okay, KP, Rufus and I will see you then," Ron replied and they went their separate ways. When they were out of earshot, Ron spoke to Rufus. "I don't think KP is gonna like Plan B, Rufus," he said.

"Nu-uh," Rufus agreed shaking his head.

"Well, buddy, it is time to hit the hay. We have a mission tomorrow," he said as they entered the Stoppable residence.

"With Shego!" Rufus pointed out, obviously freaked out slightly by the prospect.

"I know, buddy. Awkweird doesn't even cover it. But if KP is going, so are we," Ron stated. "Good night, Rufus."

"Night," Rufus squeaked and soon they were both in bed and fast asleep.


	5. Causing a Commotion

Chapter 5 – If we got together, we'd be causing a commotion

Kim waited impatiently outside of her house the next morning as 7AM grew near. She was dressed up, as instructed, and so instead of her mission clothes, was wearing a pink floral skirt, matching blouse and strappy sandal-like heels. Ron, too, had followed instructions and was in his blue suit complete with tie. He could not be completely formal, though, and so had set off the whole outfit with sneakers. Rufus, obviously having thought that Shego's 'have them dressed and at your house at 7' instruction had also included him, had dressed himself in a suit that exactly matched Ron's, but he was barefoot.

Just as Kim was about to start getting really antsy, one of Drakken's aircraft came into view. It was of the hovering variety, and so Shego was able to land it right on the Possible front lawn. Kim sighed, still a bit hesitant about the whole thing, but squaring her shoulders and shouldering her duffle bag, she marched determinedly toward the hovercraft. Picking up his own bag, Ron followed suit.

The gangplank came down and Ron and Kim boarded. Shego turned around to greet them, and Ron, being the teenaged boy that he was, could not prevent his jaw from going slack and his tongue from lolling out. Kim, thinking it was jealousy she was feeling, whacked him for his troubles, all the while admitting that the well-moneyed corporate shark look worked well for Shego. Taking her own advice, she had abandoned her mottled black and green catsuit in favor of a form-fitting black pantsuit and green blouse. Black heels finished the overall look, and Kim found herself slightly ashamed of her own now immature-seeming outfit.

"Ready to go, Princess?" Shego asked, surreptitiously noting Kim's outfit as Kim had done hers. Kimmie looked nice, she decided, but of course she was not going to tell her that.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Kim replied truthfully, still having an uneasy feeling about the whole trip.

"Cheer up, Pumpkin," Shego laughed, amused at her discomfort. "This is going to be the easy part."

"Says you," Kim muttered, taking her seat and strapping in.

Shego was about to reply, but then noticed Ron about to touch the control panel. "Sit down and strap in before I make you, Stoppable," she ordered. Ron quickly found his seat and they took off for Chicago.

The flight was uneventful and for the most part silent. The three of them were still not very comfortable with each other and it showed. Ron had tried his best to lighten the mood as his job of sidekick called for, but Shego was having none of it, and his attempts at levity led to long, uncomfortable and awkward silences. Kim breathed one sigh of relief when he at last gave up and another when the distinctive Chicago skyline came into their sightline. She settled in for the landing as O'Hare came into view, but much to her surprise, Shego bypassed it, instead flying straight for the downtown skyscrapers, weaving in and out of them effortlessly until she found the building she wanted. She landed softly on the helipad on the roof, shutting down the engines and extending the gangplank.

"This doesn't look like the Field Museum," Kim noted.

"It's not," Shego confirmed succinctly. "Leave your stuff here and let's go. We have a 9AM appointment."

"For what?" Kim asked promptly.

"To see my lawyer," Shego replied truthfully and smirked when Kim was shocked into silence. They crossed the roof to the access door, which opened on their arrival to reveal a security guard. Kim readied herself for a fight, but the guard merely waited until Shego explained their presence on his roof. "We have a 9AM appointment with Robert Holtzman," she told him.

The guard consulted his pad. "Of course. Right this way, Ms. Goshen," he said politely. He looked at Kim. "It is so nice to finally meet you, Ms. Possible. Right this way, please," he said, opening the door for them all.

"Thank you," Kim replied politely, following Shego into the building.

"After you, Mr. Stoppable," the guard said.

"Hey Rufus, he knows my name!" Ron crowed, hi-fiving the naked mole rat as they followed after Kim and Shego.

Shego led the way down the corridor to a door, obviously familiar with the territory. They went through it and it turned out to open into a large opulent lobby, complete with a receptionist sitting at a large desk. She eyed them all warily, but before she could ask why they were bothering her, Shego answered her question. "Tell Bob that his 9 o'clock is here, and if he keeps us waiting I am taking my business elsewhere," she ordered.

"And you would be?" the receptionist oozed mock-politely.

"My last name is Goshen," Shego replied simply and the receptionist gasped. She suddenly could not get on the intercom fast enough, and she listened intently to the voice on the other end. When she hung up, the respect in her tone was obvious.

"Mr. Holtzman's office…" she began.

"…is the one at the end of the hall," Shego finished for her. "Thanks for all of the help." She took off in that direction and Kim, Ron and Rufus trotted after her. At the end of the hall, they were confronted with another desk, this one occupied with a cherubically faced older woman who broke out into a smile at the appearance of Shego. "I never thought I would live long enough to see you back in Chicago," she said with a smile.

"Hey Mary," Shego said, a smirk acknowledging the jibe. "Is he in?"

"Of course he is in," Mary replied, in a "well, duh" tone. "He would not miss this for the world." She turned her gaze to Kim. "You have to be Ms. Possible," she stated. "It is very nice to finally meet you," she said, rising and offering a hand.

Kim took it. "Thank you," she said, shaking it.

"Go on in," Mary offered to Kim and Shego. To Ron, she offered something else. "Could I show you to our cafeteria, Mr. Stoppable?" she asked. Ron hesitated, not wanting to leave Kim. "It has a Bueno Nacho kiosk," she mentioned. Ron looked at Kim pleadingly and Kim nodded.

"All right! Of course you may show me the cafeteria, my good lady," Ron said exuberantly and shaking her head slightly, Mary led him down the hall.

"Why can't Ron be here?" Kim asked, picking up on the diversion tactic easily.

"Attorney-client privilege," Shego replied nonchalantly.

"I am not a client," Kim countered.

Shego shrugged. "Yup, you are," she informed Kim as she opened the door.

"What?" Kim protested, but before she could say more, a deep male voice interrupted her.

"Must you always scare the staff into wetting themselves when you deign to come in?" Bob asked plaintively from behind his desk.

"Mary seemed in control of herself," Shego retorted, and Bob laughed.

"About time you came back around, young lady," he replied, holding out his hand. Shego shook it good-naturedly. "Bob, meet Kimberly Possible, Nana Mim's great-grandniece," she said, drawing Kim into the conversation. "Bob here was Nana Mim and Nana Sheila's attorney," she explained. "And since you are Mim's heir, he is your attorney too."

"Very nice to meet you, sir," Kim replied to be polite. "Shego, can I talk to you over here for a second?" Shego shrugged and allowed herself to be led to a corner. "How did you know I was Mim's heir?" Kim demanded, outraged at the intrusion into her privacy. "I didn't know I was Mim's heir until a couple of days ago, and you didn't even know Mim was a Possible!"

"It wasn't hard to deduce, Princess," Shego pointed out. "I have always known that I was not their only heir, and after Nana Mim dropped her little bombshell, the only um, possible, choice I had was you. And I was right." Kim sighed sharply, still upset but finding no way around the logic. As they came back over, Bob could sense the tension and sought to diffuse it.

"I have heard and read so much about you that it is nice to met you in person," he said pleasantly. "And from what I read, you take after Mim in more than just looks." Kim smiled, and Bob decided to press on. "So, Sheila, your message said that you had a question about Mim and Sheila's will," he said, turning to Shego.

"Yeah, well, it is like this," Shego started. "When I was like 5, Nana Mim and Nana Sheila gave me a necklace that my mom took away from me after they died. It was actually some sort of South American artifact, and Mom gave it to the Field Museum here in Chicago. For reasons I can't explain, I need it back and I need it back now. So, I need to know if they explicitly left it to me, and if they did, I need you to start the paperwork to get it back."

Bob nodded. "Let's see what I can come up with," he said, waking up his computer. "We just recently digitized all of our important documents so I should be able to call it up for you." He clicked a few times. "Ah, here is their folder, 'Goshen, Sheila L. and Possible, Miriam K'." Another couple of clicks and a will popped up on the screen. "Let's see, property, stocks, cash, ah here we are, jewelry. 'To our great-grandniece, Sheila Miriam Goshen, we bequeath the following items…'" he scanned through the lengthy list, "…and last but not least, one unnamed amulet from an ancient South American culture, dated to at least 1000 B.C. by experts, already to be found in her possession. Because its value as a historical item makes it attractive to others, we feel it must be reiterated that is indeed her rightful possession, given to her by us and that may not be taken away.'"

"Guess Mom just flat out ignored that part," Shego muttered. "All right, Bob; I need you to get it back for me as quickly as you can."

Kim sat there, dumbfounded that Shego, master thief and self-proclaimed evil person, was taking the legal route to regain what they needed. It was the last thing she expected, and on the surface, she did not believe it. This had to be a trick of Shego's somehow.

"I'll do my best, Sheila," Bob mused, "but if this artifact is as valuable as you say, the Field is not going to want to give it up. They will have to eventually, but they will fight it every inch of the way. I'll start all of the paperwork and try to get a court order to allow you to take temporary possession, but I would wager it will take at least six months to a year to get it back."

"That's not good enough, Bob," Shego stated. "What else do you have?"

"You could ask them," Bob said, only half-joking. "They might just give it to you."

"That is as good as anything that we have right now," Shego mused. "Come on, Princess. We have a museum to visit." She got up to leave and Kim followed suit.

"Sheila, wait," Bob forestalled her. He got up, going to a safe that was hidden behind a portrait on the wall. He entered the combination, opened the door and extracted a small box. "Here," he said, holding it out to her, "this became yours four years ago and you neglected to pick it up."

Shego knew what was in the box. "I didn't want to pick it up, Bob, and I still don't," she admitted gruffly. "It was Nana Sheila's prized possession, and I don't really deserve it."

Bob ignored her and put it into her hand anyway. She held the box gingerly as if it would bite and then carefully opened the lid. Inside lay a ring, and Kim recognized it as the ring she had seen Sheila wearing in the mirror, the one that Mim had an identical one of, and the one thing in the mirror that had made Shego recognize Sheila. This was Sheila's wedding ring, Kim realized, and the sight of it was doing something significant to Shego and in turn to Kim. All of Shego's natural hubris had been stripped away, and there was only a look of profound sadness on her face. It wasn't the face of pure evil, Kim decided, nor would pure evil have come to her lawyer in order to get what was rightfully hers. All of the little bits and pieces Kim knew of Shego assembled themselves into one big picture and Kim, to her amazement, found herself liking what she saw.

"You should take it, Shego," she said softly, causing Shego to look up in surprise. "They would want you to have it."

"No, they wouldn't," Shego muttered.

"Yes, they would," Kim insisted. "They know who you work for, Shego; they know who you are and what you do. And they love you anyways. They are always going to see the good in you even when you don't think there is any. You are their Junior; you always will be, and there is nothing that you can do that will change that."

Shego scowled at her, not wanting to believe, but damn it all to hell, Kim was right. They did know whom she worked for; they had even joked with her about it. And, they had, in spite of her protests that she was no longer a hero, managed to rope her into this damn mission with this damn annoying teenager because they knew she wouldn't refuse them. "Get over yourself, stupid," she told herself. "The hero is right; they know all about you and they could give a shit." Her grip tightened around the box, snapping it shut, and she turned to Kim. "Thanks, Princess," she said, a slight, but genuine smile on her face.

"Don't mention it…Junior," Kim teased, unable to resist.

"Don't push your luck, Kimmie," Shego warned her, but with a smirk on her face. "Come on. Let's go collect the sidekick and the mole rat and see how long it takes the museum people to tell us to get lost. Bye, Bob," she added as she walked out the door.

"Bye, Sheila," he answered as she walked out the door. "May I have a word with you, Ms. Possible?" he asked as Kim turned to leave.

"Um, sure?" Kim said apprehensively, not knowing what to expect.

"As the lawyer for your estate, I feel I must warn you that cavorting with convicted criminals is not the best way to maintain the good standing of the family name," he said, a scolding look on his face.

Kim's first instinct was to be offended, but she realized quickly that he was joking. "True, but then it seems that representing convicted criminals and doing their legal bidding might not do much for a respectable law firm's standing, either," she countered.

"Not if they pay well and we win the case," Bob laughed. "But seriously, Ms. Possible, I asked you to stay because I have something for you as well." He held out another small box. "This ring was Mim's, and she left it to you. You are supposed to officially inherit it at eighteen along with the rest of the estate, but you are here, you seem to be a mature person, and I think you should get it now."

Kim took the box. "Thank you, Mr. Holtzman," she said. "Now that I have learned so much about her, it will be nice to have something of hers."

"You are welcome, Ms. Possible," he replied. "Now you had better take off after Sheila before you get left."

Kim chuckled. "Bye, sir," she said as she left his office in pursuit of Shego.

The meeting at the museum went about as they had it expected it would: they asked for the amulet and were nearly laughed off of the premises, politely of course. They had been lucky to get the meeting at all; it was only after Shego had name dropped and Kim had called in favors with a few people she had helped out a few times that the president of the museum had even deigned to meet. It had lasted all of about 15 minutes, and after they had explained what they wanted, they were told that he could do nothing for them; the piece had been donated to the museum and if that had been done illegally, they needed to contact their lawyers. Kim and Shego thanked him for his time; well, at least Kim did. Shego had nearly set his tie on fire because his attitude was starting to irk her.

As security was escorting them out of the building, Shego decided to take a little detour. "Hey Princess," she whispered to Kim. "Wanna see it before they throw us out?" Kim, a little peeved herself at how they had been treated, nodded. She alerted Ron, who let Rufus in on the plans. Rufus set things in motion by ditching his suit, running over to a female patron of the museum standing several feet away and making his naked presence known by climbing up her clothing. He perched on her shoulder and chittered away, doing his best impression of a zoology lab escapee. Predictably, the woman screamed at the top of her lungs and the security guards attending them abandoned them in order to help out. Kim, Shego and Ron took the opportunity to make a quick right at Sue the resident T. rex into the ancient culture gallery.

They found it with ease and after looking at it carefully, Kim was decidedly underwhelmed. It was a small disc about 5 centimeters across and made out of what appeared to be silver. It had tiny inscriptions on the face and a small hole in the center. That was it. It wasn't glowing, it wasn't gaudy and Kim found herself skeptical that the theft of this tiny item was going to cause the end of the world.

"Not much to look at, is it?" Shego asked, reading Kim's thoughts by the expression on her face.

"No," Kim replied.

"That's why I think Nana Sheila and Nana Mim are nuts," Shego said bluntly. "But they did come back from the dead, so I guess they are serious." They looked up as Rufus came scurrying into the room. He dove into Ron's pocket and the four of them retreated as the angry bellows of the security guards came from the other side of the room. Once outside, Shego gave the building a once over. "We need to get back to Bob's, get our stuff and change. It's time for Plan B," she said.

"And what's Plan B?" Kim prompted.

"We steal it," Shego replied with a smirk on her face.  
On Top of The Field Museum, several hours later  
Kim sat in the hovercraft moping. In a matter of minutes, she was going to become a criminal, and though she could really see no other option, she wasn't happy with it.

"Cheer up, Princess; I got you a gift," Shego said, shoving a black knitted cap on her head.

"A ski cap?" Kim questioned grumpily. "Why don't we put shoe polish on our faces while we are at it?"

"Sidekick boy already has enough on for all of us," Shego said wryly, pointing out Ron. Kim glanced at him and couldn't help but crack a smile. He looked absolutely ridiculous; he had chosen white shoe polish instead of black and looked like those living snowmen that had fought a while back. The smile only lasted for a moment though, and Kim went back to being pouty. "Look, Pumpkin, I know this goes against everything you hold dear, but we have to do it. The greater good and all that bullshit," Shego protested.

Kim sighed. "I know, Shego. I just wish we didn't," she said. She pouted a moment longer, then roused herself. "But I do thank you for trying to do it the right way," she thanked her.

"Don't thank me. The trip to the museum was a diversion," Shego said, an unapologetic smirk on her face. "They will assume that we have to lay low now that we have revealed our intentions. But you know what happens when you assume."

"What?" Ron asked, interested.

"Never mind, Ron," Kim hushed him. "So the trip to the museum was a diversion. What about the meeting with Mr. Holtzman? Was that a trick too?" Kim asked, about to get really pissed if Shego had played her.

"Nope, that was real," Shego answered indifferently. "I didn't think that Bob would be able to anything quickly, but I promised Nana Mim and Nana Sheila that I would try to keep your reputation as a do-gooder intact. Well, I kept my end of the bargain, so now we do it my way."

"Fine," Kim acquiesced. "Are we ready?" She plucked the cap off her head. "And do I really need the stupid cap? I have done plenty of covert missions without one."

"Not really, but you do look cute in it, Princess," Shego said with a wink, and Kim for the life of her could not tell if she was being sarcastic or eyedShego suspiciously but did not say a word.

"I'll take it!" Ron offered. "It will complete my look."

"You don't need a look, Stoppable," Shego informed him. "You and the rat are staying with the hovercraft."

"Aw, man!" Ron whined.

"Let's go, Kimmie," Shego said, ignoring him, and together she and Kim left the craft.

They crept carefully along, looking for any security cameras up there that might not have shown up on Wade's schematics. It was just their luck that a world famous exhibit was at the Field at the same time as they were attempting their heist. It meant that security was tighter than it had been and security devices might be in places that they were not expecting. They made it to their access point without difficulty, though, and after a quick consult to Wade that there was no kind of alarm attached to it and that he had the security cameras under control, they popped it open and slithered inside. Once through the ductwork and on the upper floor, they used rappelling lines to drop down to the main floor where the amulet was located.

To their right lay the special exhibit, and they could see all kinds of motion detectors and other security devices diligently guarding it. What they needed was to the left, however, and no such obstacles blocked their path. They went right over to the case they had seen that afternoon, and Shego lit up her index finger, using it to cut her way carefully through the glass. Pushing the circle of glass out of her way, she reached in and grabbed the little disc of silver they had come for. Things were going perfectly, or so they thought.

Ron was sitting in the passenger's seat of the hovercraft griping to Rufus about being left behind when he noticed the dark forms coming over the side of the roof. "That's not good, Rufus," he said. Rufus nodded. He thought for a moment. "We have to keep them away from the getaway car," he decided. Thinking fast, he grabbed some nearby cable and carefully exited the hovercraft, being careful not to attract any attention. He positioned himself a good distance away from it and sat down. "Tie me up good, Rufus," he told the mole rat. "We have to make this look good." Rufus did as he was told, tying himself up for good measure. "Help!" Ron wailed. "He-ee-lp!"

"Over here!" came the alert and soon Ron found himself surrounded by an armed SWAT team. "What happened here, son?" one of them asked. "Don't you work with Kim Possible?"

"Yes, yes I do," Ron agreed, stalling for time while he thought of something "She is in the museum trying to catch Shego," he lied. "I was up here looking for Drakken when he, um, knocked me on the head and tied me up."

"Which way did he go?" several team members asked him.

"That way," Ron said, pointing to the roof access door. "Shego was taking too long so he went in to help."

"Cut him loose," the captain ordered. When Ron was freed, he gave the order to move out. "Stay up here, son. We will take care of this."

"Okay, sir," Ron agreed wholeheartedly, and the captain disappeared into the access door with his men. After he was gone, Ron, figuring he should block the door somehow, got a laser weld from the hovercraft and melted all of the hinges and the doorknob. He then called Kim.

"KP! We just had a SWAT team on the roof! You guys have to get out of there!" Ron yelled frantically.

"SWAT team?" Kim questioned as she and Shego left the gallery, the amulet safe in Shego's ankle pouch. She hung back to make sure she had heard right. Shego, on the other hand, walked right out into the foyer.

"Freeze!" the commander ordered as the floodlights came on.

"Well, fuck," Shego commented quietly. She looked over to the rappel lines for a quick escape, but they had been cut. "Double fuck." Kim saw the lights come on from where she was standing and made a split-second decision.

"Stop this instant, Shego!" she bellowed, running out of the gallery at full speed and tackling Shego to the ground. Shego responded instinctively by lighting up her hands and the two of them wrestled on the ground for a few minutes before Shego came to herself. Kim could see the accusation in her eyes, but before Shego could call her on being a traitorous bitch, she let her in on what she was thinking. "Grab my hairdryer and make for the roof, Shego," she hissed as they continued to fight. "I'll follow and they won't shoot at you if I am up there too."

Shego nodded, cracking a smile at Kim's unexpected deviousness. She grabbed the hairdryer and kicked Kim away, but not so far away that Kim could not catch up. "Thanks for the lift, Princess," she said, waving the grappling gun in a taunting gesture before she aimed and shot it skyward. The hook found its purchase on the second floor railing and she rapidly started to climb up. Trying to stay in character like Shego had, Kim growled, flipped herself off the floor and took off after her. Shego had made it halfway to the second floor by the time she started, so she used the ever-helpful T. rex Sue to make her ascent, scampering up the skeleton. Carefully judging the distance, she gingerly leapt off the fossil and grabbed onto Shego's ankle, dangling in midair.

Shego grunted as the extra weight was added, but did not stop, pulling them both up. She reached the railing and flipped over, flinging Kim over the railing and on to the floor in one motion. She abandoned the grappling gun and made for the roof access stairs, only to rethink that course of action when the SWAT team from the roof came barreling out. "Damn it!" she cursed, diving into the ducts that she and Kim had used to access the place. Kim, after she had gotten up off the floor and retrieved her hairdryer, followed suit.

They scurried quickly through the ducts and Shego blasted off the panel to the roof, no longer concerned with being silent. She ran to the hovercraft, got in and strapped herself down, noting that Ron and the mole rat were already good to go. A helicopter appeared suddenly above them, and having no choice, she raised the gangplank and took off.

"What about Kim?" Ron protested frantically.

"Patience, Stoppable," Shego told him, smiling when she heard the "thunk" of a grappling hook attaching itself to the antenna of the hovercraft. "That would be her," she said confidently. "Call her and tell her to hold on; we have to outrun these guys." Ron did as he was told, saw that it was indeed Kim who was at the other end of the grappling line attached to them and breathed a sigh of relief.

Shego hit the accelerator and they took off. The helicopter gave chase for a while, but then gave up as Shego expertly shook them off her tail. When it was safe, she slowed the hovercraft to a hover and allowed Kim to climb aboard. "You should have worn the hat," she pointed out, laughing openly as Kim's wind-teased bouffant came into view.

Kim glared at her, and finding nothing better to say, merely said, "Shut up, Shego," causing Shego to laugh harder. "We barely escape with our lives and all you can do is laugh at my hair?" Kim asked incredulously.

Shego shrugged. "It's a great stress reliever," she said, winding down. "And you have to admit that it is funny." Kim cracked a smile, begrudgingly conceding the point. "But seriously, Princess, nice thinking out there. You saved our asses. You too, Stoppable," she added, surprising Ron. "Those guys I ran into were coming from the roof and I noticed that they hadn't touched the hovercraft. The door back to the roof wasn't exactly working, either. That had to be your doing."

"Yup, that was Ron the man," Ron said proudly, happy that she had acknowledged him.

"So where to now?" Shego asked.

"South America?" Kim answered.

""We can't yet," Shego replied. "We never figured out how to get in the temple."

Kim got up and went to her bag, rummaging around for a few seconds before pulling out Mim and Sheila's journals. "Will these do?" she asked facetiously.

"All right, KP!" Ron cheered.

"And why did you being those?" Shego asked, impressed that she had thought of it. Kim would make an excellent thief if she ever had the inclination.

"Because I had a feeling that we might have some people looking for us after we got done in Chicago and we might not make it back to Middleton," Kim said wryly.

"See, already thinking like a criminal. Ever thought about changing professions?" Shego cajoled.

"No," Kim said flatly.

"See, no vision whatsoever," Shego sighed. "That is what makes you a boring hero."

"Yes, it does and now I would like to save the world," Kim stated.

"Pfft. Heroes. Who needs them?" Shego sniffed.

"You do, apparently," Kim retorted. "Now quit being a pain and take us to South America," she ordered, her voice firm, but her tone light.

Shego saluted, acknowledging the truth in the statement. "Aye-aye, Cap'n," she said wryly, turning them south.


	6. Margaritaville

Chapter 6 – Wasting away in Margaritaville

Kim opened her eyes slowly and grumbled incoherently as sunlight came streaming into the bedroom where she was trying desperately to get some sleep. Still grumbling, she got up to go pull the shade, and it wasn't until she was on her way back that she woke up enough to realize where she was, or more specifically, where she wasn't. It startled her into full alertnessas it all came back and she flopped back on the bed tiredly, knowing there was no way she was getting back to sleep now. The Kimmunicator picked just that moment to go off, and already awake and having nothing better to do, she answered it.

"Hey Wade," she mumbled.

"Whoa, Kim," Wade exclaimed, loving the opportunity to tease her. "You look rough. Busy night?"

Kim refused to be baited. "You know what I did last night," she said humorlessly. "You helped. So what's the sitch?"

"I am picking up a weird signal from the hovercraft and I think it may be a tracking device," he answered. "With Shego being hunted down and all, you should probably disable it."

Kim had heard only first part. "Okay," she said, getting off the bed and making her way outside. As she walked, the rest of what he had said made it through her sleepy processors. "Did you say Shego was being hunted down?" she asked.

"Yup," Wade replied. "I think you should take a look at this," he said, bringing up the morning's headline for several different national and international papers.

Kim looked at them briefly. "You so have got to be kidding me; it has only been a day," she protested.

Shego strolled through the busy marketplace looking for something that resembled breakfast. People were bustling everywhere, but everyone she met paused to greet her. They all knew her here; she had fallen in love with this little seaside Mexican town awhile back and built a place on the beach. It was just a cabin, nothing fancy, but she loved it both for the solitude and the beauty of the surroundings. It was a place she came to as often as she could, and last night, with Stoppable snoring in the back and Kimmie tired and bitchy in the front, she figured it would be a good place to rest and regroup. She had no food in the house, though, and so here she was, on a quest for morning sustenance.

She had just stopped in front on the panadería when her cell phone went off. The number wasn't familiar, but it had a Middleton area code, so she figured that Kimmie was awake and calling her about something. "Yeah?" she asked by way of a greeting.

"Shego? Is that you?" came Dr. Drakken's distinctive voice.

"Yes, Dr. D. It's me. What do you want?" Shego answered shortly, wanting to be sarcastic but knowing it was useless because the blue idiot wouldn't get it anyway.

"Is, um, Kim Possible there with you?" he asked hesitantly.

"No," Shego answered, going for the literal. Kim wasn't with her after all; she was back at the cabin hogging the only bed.

"Would you know where she was?" he persisted.

"Maybe," she hedged, suspicious of this whole phone call. "Why are you suddenly so interested in Possible's whereabouts, Dr. D?"

"Because I am sitting in the middle of the Middleton police station with detectives and FBI agents breathing down my neck, Shego!" Drakken said petulantly. "They seem to think that you have kidnapped her and that I had something to do with it. I tried telling them that I had nothing to do with it and they wouldn't even know she was with you if I hadn't told them you were planning to rob the museum, but they don't seem to care!"

Shego could feel the rage beginning to well up in her at Drakken's unexpected revelation. She felt like crushing her phone, but she wanted to clarify first. "Let me get this straight," she said, in a tone that had Drakken looking for the nearest exit even though he was miles away, "you called SWAT on me?"

Drakken did not answer for several long moments, knowing by her tone that he had screwed up lethally and trying to think up a way to save his scrawny blue neck. He decided whining was his best option, which proved how utterly stupid he really was considering how badly Shego hated whiners. "But Shego," he whined, "you hadn't been home for a few days and you know how I think of us as a little evil family, so it hurt me when you just showed up out of the blue and then left again. I used the tracking device on the hovercraft to find out you were in Chicago and since we had talked about raiding the traveling exhibit at the Field, I thought you were doing it without me after we had done so much planning to do it together. Well, I was hurt, Shego, and I thought the best way to teach you a lesson would be to foil your plans."

It really was beneficial to Drakken's continued existence that he was in Middleton and Shego was in Mexico; otherwise there was a good possibility that he would have found himself dead or at least badly injured. As it was, Shego was damn well not going to let him off scot-free even if she couldn't reach him, so she decided on another form of revenge. "My plans, Dr. D?" she asked, putting heated accusation in her voice, knowing for a fact that the weasel was allowing the cops to tap the call and wanting them to get an earful. "But those were your plans. I was supposed to lure Kimmie by pretending to steal from the museum and then I was supposed to kidnap her for whatever stupid reason you came up with. I lured her to the museum all right, but only to warn her what your whack job self was planning to do. And since you hollered copper on me, I so am glad I did." She paused, winding up for the finale. "Last but not least, I quit. I am tired of working for your idiotic, crazy ass," she finished, and it was not a joke. She was completely through with him after a stunt like that.

Drakken chuckled uncomfortably as a roomful of law enforcement officials turned to stare menacingly at him. "Heh, heh, you are such a joker, Shego," he said weakly. Shego didn't respond, but instead hung up on him, sending a resounding "click" throughout the room. As the atmosphere in the room grew increasingly hostile, he made one last effort. "She is lying; it was her plan, I swear. See, I can still trace the hovercraft. Would I do that if it was my plan?" he offered, holding up the GPS tracking device and turning it on. "See there," he said, pointing at the screen, where a red disc was blinking, "that is where they are." Before anyone could get a lock on it though, it abruptly disappeared. The officers' frowns grew deeper. "Oh, snap," Drakken whimpered.

Shego raced back to the cabin, breakfast completely forgotten; she had to find that tracking device before a vengeful Drakken told the damn cops where they were. Just as she came running up though, a still slightly out of it Kim came out of the craft blinking, yawning and saying bye to someone, presumably Wade, on her Kimmunicator.

"Isn't it a little early to be running from the police?" Kim asked sarcastically, her lack of sleep making her uncharacteristically snarky.

"If I don't find what I am looking for, we will both be running, Princess," Shego answered hurriedly.

Kim watched her for a few moments. "If you are looking for the tracking device, I already took care of it. Wade traced the signal and I destroyed it," she said offhandedly, yawning. "And I don't have to run," she added, a wry smile on her face at the irony. "The whole world thinks you kidnapped me. Well, except that one tabloid, but no one reads the tabloids."

Shego, having missed the grin, thought she was serious, and she turned to glare at Kim. "So are you going to screw me over too, aren't you?" she asked angrily, preparing to get damn pissy about how life was suddenly treating her. "What, you weren't helping last night, and after all this shit is done you are going to go back to your perfect little life and just leave me to swing. Is that it?"

Kim looked at her in shock. "I would never do that, Shego," she said quietly, hurt at the accusation. "I stick by my friends."

That last, completely unexpected word stopped Shego's anger cold, but she refused to show it. "Friends?" she scoffed. "When the hell did we become friends, Princess? Last I heard you hated me."

"Yes. I hate you so much that I helped you knock over a museum, steal a priceless artifact and make your escape," Kim deadpanned.

"You had to. The future of the world was at stake," Shego groused, but in spite of herself, she had to crack a smile. "Was that actual sarcasm, Pumpkin?" she asked in wonderment.

"Depends," Kim replied with a grin. "Are we friends?"

"You did say you hated me," Shego countered.

Kim sighed. "I was incredibly pissed off that night and you know it, Shego. I said things I didn't really mean."

Shego's eyebrow rose in amusement. "Sarcasm and swearing in the same conversation? I guess you could be a friend of mine after all," she allowed.

"Bless you, O granter of friendship," Kim replied, bowing.

"Cut it out," Shego ordered. "The sarcasm is freaking me out and I might have to start liking you if you keep it up."

"Duly noted," Kim responded. "Now, seriously, what are we going to do about the kidnapping thing?"

"I sorta took care of that," Shego said, shrugging.

"How?" Kim asked.

Shego chuckled. "I pinned it on Drakken," she said with satisfaction.

"You didn't," Kim said, aghast.

"I did," Shego countered. "Bastard called the cops on us last night and put the tracking device on the hovercraft. He had it coming." She smiled

"For once, he didn't do anything, Shego," Kim protested.

"And we will tell the cops that," Shego replied. "Just not until we get back. Speaking of which, I am going to go back into town for food and supplies. You, Princess, need to get something out of the journals so we can do something before the world blows up."

"Why me? I always have to read Mim's journal," Kim complained.

"Nana Mim was your overly descriptive relative; that's why. Bye, Kimmie," Shego stated, turning around and taking off before Kim could protest. Kim sighed and walked back to the cabin. She sat down at the table, pulled the journals out her bag and flipped to the appropriate spot. She started reading and taking notes, but the usually long-winded Mim became strangely laconic the instant she started writing about the temple, and it wasn't until the end that she offered up this explanation: she and Sheila were still concerned that Lipsky or some other malcontent would attempt to gain access into the temple and she did not want the journal to be come a roadmap.

"Why is that even an issue, Aunt Mim?" Kim grumbled, annoyed that there was so little to go on and they could not return to Middleton to ask them about it. "You took the amulet with you."

"Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity, Princess," an arriving Shego mentioned from the doorway. Kim glowered at her as Shego put down her packages on the table. Shego merely grinned. "So what did you figure out, Pumpkin?" she asked conversationally.

"There are six levels in the temple and each level has some sort of trap meant to cause death or at least a whole lot of pain," Kim replied.

"Sounds like fun," Shego said. "Do we have anything more specific that that?"

"Kind of. Mim did describe the architecture in the temple as being spiral, and the pathway slopes upward so that you automatically go up as you are busy avoiding death on each level," Kim explained. "But the only info we have on the death traps is that they are color coded."

"Color coded? What? These were highly organized primitive gods?" Shego asked sardonically.

"It is the Temple of the Avenging Prism, Shego," Kim reminded her. "And they sent a rainbow colored comet toward you and your brothers."

Shego rolled her eyes. "All right, all right. They were big on colors; I get it," she said dismissively.

Kim listed off what she knew. "Anyway, the pattern follows a prism. The first level is red and the trap has something to do with blood. The second is orange and that trap is fire. The yellow level is light, the green level is, reading between the lines, snakes, the blue level is water and the highest level is purple, but there is no trap. It is the chamber where the amulet is kept."

"Gotta be a trap up there, even if Nana Mim did not write about it," Shego decided. "Anything else?"

Kim shook her head. "Nope; that's it. If we were in Middleton, we could ask them, but we can't, so that is what we have. There is no question we can do it, but I do wish we had a little more information."

"That is more than enough, Kimmie," Shego reassured her. "I mean, come on. How many of Drakken's death traps have you escaped from? And between the two of us, how many high security facilities have we broken into?"

Kim smiled; she wasn't saying it, but Shego was looking as forward to this as she was. So, really, there was no point to them hanging around here anymore. "I think that is all we can do here, and we should get going," she said decisively.

"Works for me," Shego agreed. She glanced over at the couch. "Although you might want to wake up the sidekick and the mole rat."


	7. Welcome to the Jungle

Chapter 7 – Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games

Somewhere in Southern Guyana, several hours later  
"Um, that doesn't look like a spiral building to me," Ron commented as they looked up at what supposed to be the temple they looking for.

"That's because it isn't," Kim replied. She checked the map again, but, no, this was the place that they were supposed to be. She frowned. "I really thought that the Temple of the Avenging Prism would be more…"

"…colorful?" Shego supplied helpfully.

"Yeah," Kim answered. "It just seems way plain." They stood there for a few moments more looking at the structure. It was made out of a dull gray stone and as Ron had noted, was not spiral but shaped like a huge cinder block. It was about as plain as one too, with no kind of ornamental anything on the outside.

"This has to be the place, though, right Kimmie?" Shego asked.

Kim shrugged. "It doesn't look how Mim described it, but it is way too much of a coincidence that there is a building in the middle of a jungle exactly where Mim said it would be for this not to be the place," she said.

"All right then; in we go," Shego agreed, and after carefully circling the block, they found a small unmarked doorway. Shego indicated it, Kim shrugged and together all four of them entered. They had been in all of two seconds when the door ominously slammed shut behind them, plunging them into darkness. Shego cursed and started to light her plasma, but before she even could, the interior suddenly lit up on its own. Blinking in the sudden brightness, their mouths dropped open as they got a good look at the place. All of the color that had been conspicuously absent on the outside was conspicuously present in here. The walls were alive with color, all carefully interwoven into a spectacular display that left them in awe, and it wasn't until a voice addressed them from above that they snapped out of their collective reverie.

"Why do you enter here?" it asked.

""We came to return the amulet," Kim answered simply, hoping that was all of the explanation that would be necessary.

"Then you must ascend to the heights," the voice responded. "But you must descend to the depths before you can ascend to the heights."

"Supernatural double-speak. Goody," Shego grumbled. "And how might we do this?"

"You cannot," the voice stated. "Only those that went before may return again to the heights."

"Then why did you tell us we needed to ascend to the heights in the first place?" Shego asked, annoyed.

"Because that is where salvation must be returned to," the voice responded and Shego issued a small growl of frustration. Before she could say anything, though, Kim interrupted.

"Who made it to the heights before we came?" she asked, already knowing the answer but needing to hear it anyway.

"The lovers, Red and Black," came the reply.

Her suspicion confirmed, Kim now needed more information. "Why are they the only ones that can ascend to the heights?" she questioned further.

"Because they alone possess the key," the voice answered.

"But the amulet is not the key," Shego asked, wanting to clarify.

"The key is the key," the voice replied.

"Yeah, that was helpful. Thanks," Shego retorted, growing more and more irritated. "You know, Nana Sheila, Nana Mim, I really wish you were here right now because if I came all this way for nothing, 'pissed off' won't even begin to cover it," she groused under her breath.

"Your request has been granted," the voice informed her.

"'My request has been granted.' Lovely. Now what the hell does that mean?" Shego asked, exasperated.

"It means you have two formally dead women standing behind you wondering how they managed to be spirited away from the mists of the afterlife back to this god-forsaken temple," came an amused voice from behind her. Kim, Ron and Shego whirled around to see a bemused Sheila standing there with Mim close behind. "We were quite certain that the two of you had something to do with it, however."

Kim and Shego did not answer but stood there for several seconds trying to process the fact that Mim and Sheila were standing there, apparently alive. Finally, Shego, in order to prove to herself what she was seeing, went over and poked Sheila in the shoulder. "I am quite solid and that hurts, Junior," Sheila protested. "Continue and I shall have to thrash you."

"I'd like to see you try," Shego replied automatically. Sheila said nothing, but with a quickness that was completely unexpected, took Shego's legs our from under her, causing her to land with a thud on the ground. Shego shook her head and looked up at her ancestor with a wry smile.

"Don't sass your elders, Junior," Sheila said with a smile of her own, offering her a hand up.

Shego took it, and Sheila hauled her up. However, Shego being Shego, she could not resist doing what she had been told not to do. "Elders, my ass," she sassed. "You look younger than Kimmie over there."

Shego was right; the both of them looked young, even younger than they had in the mirror and at the Mansion. They were dressed differently, too; instead of the dresses and gravity-defying hair buns, Mim and Sheila were clothed in trousers (khaki for Mim, black for Sheila), white long-sleeved collared shirts, boots and long braids that went down the length of their backs.

Mim glanced at Sheila and then down at herself. "These were our adventuring clothes," she said, looking at her clothing fondly, "and we were wearing them the first time we came. They must have brought us back as we were then." She smiled at Shego. "We were both around 24 when we came here, Junior, so we are older than the both of you by at least a year." She looked around. "But, regardless, why are we here?" she asked.

"Well, the non-helpful voice from above told us that only you could return this damn thing because only you have the key, so I guess, while I was bitching about the situation, I inadvertently asked them to bring you here," Shego explained.

Mim chuckled. "Well, that is all well and good, but they are a bit misinformed. We no longer have the key," she said.

Shego did not find the situation funny. "Then who the hell does?" she demanded.

"You two," Mim replied simply.

"Us?" Kim asked, shocked.

"What? Did you think us so foolish as to have had the rings buried with us?" Mim politely inquired. "We left them to our heirs."

"The rings are the key?" Shego asked. "Which rings? You guys had about a million."

"This ring," Sheila answered, plucking off Shego's black glove to reveal the ring Bob had given her in Chicago.

"And this ring," Mim followed, plucking Kim's glove off her right hand to reveal her own ring.

"But those were your wedding rings," Shego protested.

"They were," Mim agreed, "but they did not start out life as such. They started out life here, in particular, over there," she said, indicating a stone column in the middle of the room. "I take it you did not notice that the inscriptions on the amulet matched those on the rings?"

"No, we didn't," Kim admitted, a little ashamed.

"For which I am eternally grateful, Mim-jay," Sheila said honestly, smiling at Kim. "If Junior had not been complaining, we would not be here and I would have hated to miss out on such an adventure."

"Fabulous," Shego interjected. "But now that we know, could we get this little 'adventure' started sometime this year?"

"Tsk. Always so impatient, Junior," Sheila admonished. "Just put the rings into the holes in the column. That will unlock the unlocking mechanism." Shego looked at her dubiously, but did as she was told, taking off the ring and putting it into the proper hole in the column.

"Your turn, Princess," she said, and Kim came over, taking off the one she was wearing and placing it the column. As soon as both rings were properly seated, two thin crystal obelisks rose from the holes beneath the rings, catching both of them and lifting them from the stone column to rest on the wide base of the crystal.

"That's precisely how it looked the first time we were here," Mim mentioned. "We had no idea the rings came off until the obelisks retracted down below."

"The depths," Kim guessed.

"Exactly," Mim answered. She glanced at all of them huddled around the stone column. "I suggest you all brace yourselves," she recommended, grasping the obelisks by the base and slowly turning them counterclockwise. Nothing happened for a few seconds, but then the floor dropped out from underneath them and they were all sent plummeting downwards. Shego lighted up her plasma to give them a way to see where they were going, and they all managed to land, for the most part, on their feet at the bottom of the hole. Shego noticed a torch on the wall and lit it, unexpectedly setting off a chain reaction that lit up the whole room.

As Mim had said, once they got down to the bottom, the obelisks retracted, leaving the rings nestled in the stone. Shego picked hers up and put it back on and Kim did the same. As soon as the rings were gone, the platform the column was on started to move up and Kim and Shego jumped off of it.

There was only one way to go and that was through the doorway that was before them. Mim grinned. "Ah, yes, the red level," she said, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. "Red for blood because everything in that room is designed to make you bleed, namely 3 razor sharp pendulums separated by knife throwing walls and pits filled with sharp spikes." She looked at Kim. "I wager I can beat you through it, Kimmie-Ann," she challenged good-naturedly.

Kim quirked an eyebrow. "So not gonna happen, Aunt Mim. You are on," she replied.

Mim counted down. "1…2…3…go!" she said, and the two Possibles took off. The two Goshens went to the doorway to watch the show. Lithe bodies and red heads flipped, tumbled, leapt and slid through the obstacles, and their audience was quite spellbound, even if only one of them would readily admit it. Sheila was unashamedly enraptured by Mim and watched her every move with an unchanging look of bliss on her face. Shego couldn't help but notice.

"Um, Nana Sheila, shouldn't we be focusing on the sharp pointy things that could possibly kill us rather than on Nana Mim?" she asked dryly.

"I am already dead, Junior," Sheila reminded her without taking her eyes off Mim. "And it has been a great long while since I have seen my beautiful wife in all of her magnificent glory, so I am going to ogle at my leisure. The sharp pointy things can wait." And so they did until Mim and Kim let them know that they were safely through and on the other side. "Now then," Sheila said crisply as she sprang through the doorway, "catch me if you can, Junior." Shego cursed and followed her in.

The Possibles waited patiently for them in the room at the higher end of the curved level. The temple builders had thoughtfully put in a small antechamber between levels, and it allowed them to take a breather before going on to the next level. Much to both of their disgusts, they had actually reached the room at the same time, so neither one could call herself the winner and claim family bragging rights. As two bodies came around the corner, though, it became clear that there would be no tie with these two if there were any way possible to prevent it. As soon as one would get ahead of the other, the lagging Goshen would make some sort of move, usually a dangerous one, to get ahead of the leading Goshen and so it went as they came closer.

"Can I ask you a question, Aunt Mim," Kim asked as they watched Shego and Sheila make their way towards them.

"Sure," Mim replied. "You can ask me anything, you know that, Kimmie-Ann."

"Sheila was a spoiled society brat, right?" Kim asked bluntly. Mim smiled and nodded. "So how come she knows how to move like that?" she questioned, indicating the flipping, dodging, not-green figure coming closer.

Mim chuckled. "I was wondering when we would get around to that," she admitted. She gazed fondly at Sheila. "Well, my dearest has always had a bit of an antagonistic relationship with her family, and ever since she was small, she wanted to run away from them and join the circus. So, when she was a child and supposed to be taking piano lesions, she made a bargain with her instructor and was actually taking lessons on how to become an acrobat."

"How did she get away with that?" Kim asked, skeptical.

"She didn't," Mim replied with a wry smile. "Her mother knew exactly what she was up to, but she let it continue because she knew Sheila would be far happier in acrobatics lessons than in piano lessons." She would have said more, but at that very moment, two figures flipped out of the corridor and landed right in front of them. Seeing the looks on their faces, she forestalled any questions or arguments. "You tied," she said matter-of-factly, and both of the Goshens grew sullen, knowing she was right.

A voice from the other end of the corridor turned their attention back toward the way they came. "Um, ladies?" Ron called. "I am not sure I can get through this."

"Sure you can, Stoppable," Shego called back. "Use your mystical monkey poo or whatever it is." Kim looked at her quizzically, wondering how she knew about that. "DNamy has a big mouth, among other things," Shego explained.

"Monkey poo won't be necessary," Mim interrupted them, pulling on a lever on the wall just outside the red level, causing all of the mechanisms in the room to come grinding to a halt. "You have 30 seconds to get through before it all starts up again, Ronald," she called to him, and Ron scrambled through as fast as he could avoiding the sharp edges and spike pits that could still kill him, shutdown or no.

"You should have let him try it," Sheila muttered as an aside to Mim.

"Be good, Sheila," Mim chided. "You may not like him, but we can't very well let him get killed."

"Perhaps not killed," Sheila conceded. "Badly maimed would have sufficed." Mim sighed.

When Ron had joined them, they all crowded into the orange doorway looking onto the orange level. Shego was unimpressed; it didn't look very scary if you ignored the particularly heinous shade of orange that it was painted. "This level is not as difficult as the last," Sheila told them, confirming Shego's impression. "You only have to avoid touching any of the orange bricks, even the ones on the wall."

Ron asked the question that was on everyone's mind. "What happens if you touch the orange bricks?" he asked. Instead of answering Sheila picked up a stray rock and skipped it across the floor. Every time it hit an orange brick, a column of fire came from the opposite direction to burn it to a crisp, and when it finally came to rest on an orange brick, the fire was able to consume it completely. "No orange bricks. Got it," Ron agreed.

They all went up the psychedelic orange spiral in their own special way. Ron took the demented hopscotch approach, skipping and hopping from non-orange to non-orange brick, which was harder than it sounded like because non-orange bricks were scarce. Mim took the run-as-fast-as-you-can-and-thus-avoid-the-flames method, waiting until Ron was on the other side lest she inadvertently send a flame in his direction. Kim didn't feel like skipping or running, so she took the aerial route, using her grappling gun to good effect as she swung through the air and into the next antechamber. Sheila also took an aerial route, but used a narrow beam near the ceiling and a boost from her great-grandniece to walk safely across and up.

Shego considered following her great-great aunt, but decided against it. Instead, she walked right out into the chamber and stood on a non-orange brick. She tapped the orange brick beside it with her toe, and then waited patiently for the flame. As it came down from the ceiling, she lit up her left hand up and held it out. The flame could do nothing against her plasma and simply vanished into her palm. Shego chuckled and did the same thing with her right hand, also getting the same result. She broke out into a broad, self-satisfied grin and finished strolling up the embankment, repelling the flames at will when they came near.

"Show off!" Kim muttered when she had turned the corner enough for them to see her.

"If ya got it, flaunt it, Pumpkin," Shego replied cockily.

"I wager you are not doing that ring you are wearing any favors," Sheila pointed out.

"Oh shit! I forgot about that," Shego exclaimed, whipping off her glove to take a look, but, remarkably, the ring was completely unharmed. Intrigued, she lit up that hand again, and sure enough, the ring stayed completely intact. "Well, I'll be damned," she said. Her brow quirked in thought; she removed the amulet from her ankle pouch and held it in her palm, lighting up once more. Like the ring, the amulet did nothing but shine a little when surrounded by her glow. Shego said nothing; she merely extinguished her flame and put the amulet away, but it was clear she was still thinking. She joined the rest of them in the yellow antechamber and together they all looked through the yellow doorway into the next room. Curiously, there was nothing to see because the room was pitch black. "But I thought this was the 'light' room," Kim asked, remembering the description in the journal.

"It is," Mim replied. "Do any of you have any of those sun spectacles on your person?" Shego, Kim and Ron all rummaged around in various pockets and came up with a pair for everyone in the party, including Rufus. "Good," Mim commented. "Now put them on and step carefully into the room." They did as they were told, and as soon as they crossed the threshold, the room became engulfed in a blinding yellow light. The sunglasses helped, but even still, being in the room was like driving due west at twilight with no sun visor in your car. "This is the first light obstacle," Mim told them as they all stood around blinking.

"What's the second?" Shego asked, knowing where there was a first, there was always a second.

"The floor in some areas of the room is not solid and if you step there, you will drop down to your death," Mim replied. "You cannot tell where to step, though, because there is an optical illusion in place to make you think that the floor is uniform, and with the light so bright in here, you are quite likely to miss the subtle clues that the floor is absent."

"Then how to we get across?" Ron asked.

"Crawling is the easiest," Mim replied, knowing it would spark protest from Sheila.

"But not how we got through it the last time," Sheila interrupted. "I wouldn't crawl then, and I surely won't now." Mim looked as though she wanted to say something at that comment. She had an amused, mischievous look on her face and apparently it was one that Sheila knew well, for it earned Mim an instantaneous glare. Mim smiled but said nothing, and Sheila quickly continued before Mim could say what Sheila knew she was dying to. "The light is coming from beacons that are ubiquitous in the chamber. We got through this before by using those to cross without touching the floor."

"Spanking. How did you guys come up with that?" Kim asked, impressed.

"I fell down a hole. Sheila rescued me and then promptly fell down a hole herself. I rescued her. This pattern repeated itself several times and eventually we had a sneaking suspicion that we should try another way," Mim said wryly. Shego laughed and Kim smiled.

"Must you always be so truthful?" Sheila sighed, but with a smile on her face.

"Always," Mim replied with a smile of her own. Sheila rolled her eyes and reached for a beacon. The others followed suit and soon they were making their way across the room. Mim and Shego were climbing together as were Kim and Sheila, with Ron and Rufus following them as best they could. Each group struck up their own conversations to pass the time, and Shego was especially happy that she had some time to talk with her Nana Mim.

"So how has the afterlife been treating you, Nana Mim?" she asked as a way to start the conversation.

"I can't complain," Mim replied, grabbing a beacon. Looking briefly at Shego, she decided to be nosy. "So, I see that you and Kimmie-Ann seem to be getting along better," she mentioned.

"Yeah, we are," Shego admitted. "She, um, actually said I was her friend."

"And do you consider her a friend?" Mim inquired, pretending not to be interested in the answer.

Shego hesitated. "Um, yes, I guess?" she answered. "It is really weird, Nana Mim. She and I have been enemies for so long that it is tough to think of her as a friend."

"I can imagine," Mim said sympathetically. "Do you wish to be her friend, Junior?"

"No, not really," Shego answered with such certainty that Mim was surprised. Mim looked at her questioningly and Shego, much like her great-great aunt before her, melted under that gentle regard. "If I can be her friend, then I will start thinking I can be more, and I already know I can't," she confessed tersely. "I just don't wanna go there."

"It seems you already have," Mim pointed out slyly.

"Kinda tough not to when there is family precedent," Shego muttered.

Mim smiled at her, a knowing twinkle in her eye. "My advice is this, Junior: become her friend, even if the potential for disaster is there. You never know what the future will bring, and you will have no future at all with Kimmie-Ann if you remain enemies." Shego sighed, knowing she was right, but not really wanting to think about it. "Quit being so melancholy, Junior, or you are going to lose," Mim goaded her, trying to raise her spirits. She stepped up her pace and Shego scrambled after her, a smile on her face.

Over on their section of the wall, Kim and Sheila's conversation was much more general. They discussed the weather, life in modern times, Kim's life as a teenager in modern times and pretty much whatever other mildly interesting topic came to mind. Kim found that she loved talking to Sheila almost as much as loved talking to Mim. Sheila was witty and opinionated, and even dead she had keen observational skills that amazed and amused Kim. They chatted amiably until they came into the green antechamber and found Mim and Shego waiting for them. They waited for about five minutes and as soon as Ron had joined them, the light promptly shut off and the room behind them was once again left in darkness.

"What's next?" Kim asked as she peered into the green-tinged torchlight of the next level.

"In the simplest terms, snakes," Mim replied. "Scads and scads of snakes."

"Everyone get in behind me," Shego ordered and finding no reason to disagree, everyone did. She lit up her hands and strode into the room, grabbing a torch of the wall, lighting that and handing it to Kim who was bringing up the rear. Mim was right, poisonous snakes were everywhere: on the floor, on the walls and even falling from the ceiling. But, in spite of their superior numbers, the snakes fled from Shego's light, and the few brave enough to challenge her found themselves barbequed. Those that attempted to attack the rear flank were met with Kim's torch, and so with the snakes either in hiding or charred to a nice crisp, they made their way up the level with relative ease.

"Well, that was far easier this time," Sheila said as an aside to Mim when they reached the blue antechamber.

"Quite," Mim said in agreement. "One more level before we reach the top," she announced.

"One more level before the top," Ron echoed in relief. "Booyah, huh, buddy?" he asked Rufus.

"Booyah," Rufus agreed.

"Now what's in store?" Shego asked. "This is the blue water level, right?"

"Yes," Sheila answered. "The level will be empty when we enter, but the door will shut and it will fill up with water quickly. The only way through is to swim to the top."

"All right. Let's go," Kim said, and they all walked through the door.

Just as Sheila had said, the door slid shut behind them and the chamber started rapidly filling with water. They all ran up the ramp as fast as they could before the water overwhelmed them and they all started a determined swim toward the surface. At the other end, they encountered another closed door, but there was a small valve that allowed them access out. They swam through it and burst out breathless into the final purple colored antechamber.

Shego did a quick head count. "Where's Kimmie?" she demanded. They waited for a few seconds but Kim failed to emerge. "I am going back in," Shego stated and dove back through the hole before anyone could protest. She swan around the chamber with long strokes, not spotting Kim immediately but refusing to let herself panic. That would not help anyone, especially Kimmie. She inspected it from top to bottom, but she saw no sign of Kim. On and on she swam, and as the air slipped from her lungs, the panic slipped in despite her attempts to hold it back. She was about to lose it completely when she saw a familiar red head floating near the entrance. She swam frantically toward Kim, gathered her up and swam frantically back toward the exit. She pushed through Kim through the hole and then went herself, her breath coming in gasps as she lay on the stone floor.

Kim lay completely still beside her, not moving or breathing. Growling in frustration, Shego turned her over and thumped her hard on the back. Nothing happened. "Goddamn it, Kim!" Shego yelled. "If you give up on me just as we are starting to get along, I am going to come over to the other side and bring you back just so I can have the pleasure of killing you myself!" She thumped her one more time on the back, and this time the motion had an effect. Kim coughed, spitting up a lungful of water, and started to breathe on her own. Shego breathed a sigh of relief and slumped down beside her.

"Shego? Aunt Mim?" Kim asked weakly, slowly opening her eyes. "What happened? I remember swimming but then I think I hit my head. How did I end up here?"

"Junior rescued you," Mim informed her quietly, kneeling at Kim's side and gently turning her over. She felt gingerly around Kim's head and discovered there was quite a large lump right at the back of it. "Your head will be sore for a few days, Kimmie-Ann, but you will be fine," Mim said, having seen this particular injury many times before.

"Thanks, Aunt Mim," Kim said, already feeling a little better. She sat up and slowly scooted over to Shego. "Thank you for saving my life, Shego," she said softly.

"To boost one of your catchphrases, 'No big,' Princess," Shego replied, also quietly. "That's what friends do." Kim smiled at her, and they shared a brief moment of understanding.

Everyone in the party rested for a good half hour before anyone felt ready to tackle the remaining chamber. They passed the time amiably, the main topic of conversation being why white was a poor choice for color in an adventuring shirt. It came up because Mim and Sheila were wearing white and their blouses had become quite see-through after the last obstacle. Shego noticed it first and teased them about it. Once brought to his attention, Ron was instantly mortified and spent the rest of the time with his back to rest of the party trying to get unwanted images out of his mind. Kim for the most part rested, but did chime in now again to defend her own choice of black for top-covering mission wear. Mim and Sheila took it good-naturedly, pointing out that they rarely had male company on their trips. When they all felt up to it, they all looked at one another, rose somewhat steadily to their feet, and crossed over to the door that stood before them, a deep, rich, royally colored purple just waiting to be entered. Shego glanced around the group and finding mostly looks of anticipation, grabbed the latch and opened the door.


	8. Purple Haze

Chapter 8 – Purple haze, all around, don't know, if I'm coming up or down

"So, what trap should we be looking out for here, guys?" Shego asked as she carefully opened the door and peered in to the purple room.

"There weren't any traps when we were here last," Mim answered.

"No traps?" Kim echoed.

Sheila answered this time. "No traps," she confirmed. "We dodged, skipped, ducked and everything else we could think of, but we only succeeded in making ourselves look ridiculous."

Shego was skeptical. "All right, if you guys say so," she said hesitantly, glancing around constantly as she cautiously made her way into the room. The others followed suit and the purple door slammed shut behind them. With nowhere to go but forward, they all walked in that direction, taking in the layout and look of the room as they did so.

It was a small chamber and flat. The walls were a deep, rich purple and they had obviously reached the top of the spiral because the ground no longer sloped upward. There was a raised dais in the front of the room and in the middle of the platform sat a large, and empty, purple throne. Before the throne sat another stone column that was very much like the one they had seen down below, and it too had a thin crystal obelisk protruding from the center. The obelisk fascinated them all. It was almost alive with color as different shades of all the colors pulsed on and off all along its length with absolutely no discernable pattern.

"The amulet goes around the obelisk," Mim told them, and they all looked at Shego who was still carrying it in her ankle pouch.

"It can't be that easy, Nana Mim," Shego protested. Mim shrugged, not knowing what else to tell her. Shego sighed and carefully stepped forward. Without warning, the brick she was stepping on slid down into the floor. "Shit," she cursed, and leapt back into the group to avoid the trap she knew she had sprung. It turned out to be the worst thing she could have done, for had she stayed where she was, the net would have only captured her companions and not her. But since she had helpfully joined them, the net successfully captured them all and held them suspended from the ceiling.

"No trap, my left ass cheek," Shego muttered, as six bodies squirmed around trying to find footing. "Speaking of which, unless that hand was one that changed my diapers, I would suggest that you remove it," she announced, and the offending hand was moved quickly. "That's better," Shego stated. She tested the cords of the net and they seemed severable, but then again, this was the temple that that produced the silver washer of doom and the unmeltable wedding ring. She lit up and slashed at the webbing and the cords fell away, causing them to fall several feet to the floor. Kim, Mim and Sheila gracefully flipped themselves and landed on their feet. Ron also landed on his feet, although his technique was somewhat lacking. Shego was going to be damned if she was going to step on the floor again, so she used the netting to bypass the floor entirely and give herself enough momentum to land perfectly in front of the stone column.

She paused briefly, and after making sure she hadn't triggered any other traps, she opened her ankle pouch and withdrew the amulet. She put it at the tip and it slid it down via the small obelisk shaped hole in its center. As soon as it had settled, the obelisk stopped flashing and instead turned solid white, sending out a brilliant flash that made all of them cover their eyes.

When the light had died down and they could open them again, they were shocked to discover that there was now a person dressed in purple sitting on the throne in front of them. Obviously female, she looked at them all with an interesting half-smile on her face, as though she had been expecting this, but this was not quite what she had been expecting. She continued to observe them, and after studying both sets of Goshens and Possibles, her smile grew wider, but she said nothing.

The silence irked Shego; she had far too many questions and complaints for this bozo to remain quiet long. "Are you in charge here?" she demanded. The figure nodded and smiled wider. "First of all, stop smiling," Shego ordered. "It is pissing me off to no end." The figure sobered, but a smile still played at her lips. "Okay," Shego said, taking a deep breath. "Who the hell are you, why the hell are you here, how in the hell does a small metal disc stop the destruction of the world and why the fuck did you send a comet after me and my brothers?"

"I owe you no answers, Green," the figure replied, and Shego's face darkened. The others waited for the inevitable explosion, but she continued before Shego had the chance. "But since you have returned the dampener to its rightful place, I will give you some of the explanation you seek."

"What is this place?" Kim asked unexpectedly as she came forward to stand beside Shego.

"In the simplest terms, it is a power plant," the figure replied and pointed to the obelisk. "That crystal generated all the power needed for my people."

"Who are your people?" Shego asked, calming down now that whoever she was had started talking.

"We are not from here," she admitted.

"Doy," Shego muttered under breath. Kim poked her.

"We came to this world many thousands of years ago," the being said. "Man was a primitive people then, and we thought it best to separate ourselves from them. We hid our civilization deep in this jungle and kept to ourselves. We were discovered from time to time, but few lived to tell the tale and the existence of this place faded into legend."

"What happened?" Kim asked. "You seem to be the only one here now, and you keep talking in past tense."

"Keen observation, Pink," the being congratulated her. "You are a worthy successor to Red."

"Um, thanks, I guess," Kim said haltingly, and Shego grinned beside her. "I wouldn't start calling me 'Pink,' Junior," Kim warned her quietly. Shego said nothing but didn't exactly stop smiling wickedly either.

"You're welcome," the being amiably replied. "But to answer your question, we found a new, unpopulated plane and we moved on."

"Then why are you still here?" Shego countered.

"To protect the crystal if the humans should ever discover it. I built the spire around it, along with the traps, so that even if a human should try to enter they would be unlikely to reach the top," the being explained. "It worked very well for a very long time, but eventually two humans found their way around my traps." She glanced toward the back to where Mim and Sheila stood.

"Yeah, they rock," Kim agreed absentmindedly. She paused a moment, her brow furrowed in thought, and Shego could practically see the wheels spinning. "I don't think you are here to protect the crystal from the humans; it makes no sense. Humans would not know how to use it, even if they managed to steal it," Kim stated practically. "And even if they stole it, so what? Your people are no longer here and they no longer need it for power. And they apparently still don't need it wherever they went to because they have never come back for it. I think all of this, the temple, the traps, you, are all here to protect humans from the crystal."

Mim smiled. "That's my girl," she murmured proudly.

"Of course she solved it; she's a Possible," Sheila muttered back. "Annoyingly quick minds and superior reasoning skills are a family trait."

"Junior can hold her own in the wit department," Mim answered wryly. "Speaking of which, what is that girl up to now?" she asked, as Shego drew close to the obelisk and slid the amulet off of it. Immediately, it turned from white to the multicolored they had seen when they first walked in. Shego quirked an eyebrow, but remained still for few seconds as if trying to sense something. After a while, she nodded and then replaced the amulet. After the white flash, she stood for several seconds more before smirking, nodding and resuming her place beside Kim.

"Kimmie is right, and that's why we had to bring the damn amulet back here," she said matter-of-factly. "The energy in that stupid crystal thing is completely unstable without the 'dampener' as you called it, and I am sure the longer there is no dampener, the more unstable it becomes. Leave it off too long and the whole thing blows, and with what I could sense, that would probably be enough energy to wipe out half the planet." She paused. "And that is why you sent the comet after me," she realized. "This thing is indestructible," she said, pointing at the amulet, "so you knew if you barbequed me, it would still be there for you to pluck off of my smoking corpse."

"The comet was never meant for you, Green," the being contradicted her. "It was meant for Red and Black."

"Wow, that is such a comfort," Shego said sarcastically. "So, you weren't trying to kill me, you were trying to kill two of the women I love most in the world. Women, I might add, that had already been dead for 3 years!"

"I was not aware of that they had passed into another plane," the being admitted. "But the dampener had to be returned and nothing else had been successful."

"You tried to kill them before?" Kim asked.

"Once every twelve years, I made an attempt to get the dampener back. All attempts were unsuccessful, so after seven cycles, I decided to do something catastrophic, because at the end of eight cycles the crystal would fracture," the being replied.

Shego snorted. "They were too good for you. You couldn't beat them so you decided to kill them, but you actually got me instead. And you couldn't kill me either."

"How did Shego survive?" Kim asked.

"The dampener exists to dampen and alter energy. That does not change, even when it is away from here," their host explained. "When the comet struck, the dampener was able to reduce and modify the comet's energy so that their young bodies could not only survive it, but actually absorb and utilize it. I did not foresee that the combination would have such an effect," she concluded with an ironic smile.

Shego grinned, happy that in her own small way, she had screwed up the alien's plans. "Yeah, I bet you didn't," she chuckled, loving the irony.

"So what happens now?" Kim asked. "The dampener is back where it needs to be. Does that make everything cool? The world isn't going to blow up on us?"

"Everything will be fine as long the dampener remains in place," the being confirmed. "After it was taken the last time, I made some modifications to the building and the traps in order to improve security."

"Yeah, modifications that we just breached," Shego pointed out. "And if we can do it, others can too and we are up shit creek again." She turned to the being. "There is no way to get rid of this thing?" she asked.

"Not that we have been able to delineate," the being replied.

A plan was forming in Shego's mind, and she had more questions. "How long have you been stuck here watching this thing?" she asked.

"Over 50,000 years," was the reply.

"Could you go join your people if it wasn't dangerous?" was the next question.

"I can see no reason why not," the being replied. "But why?"

"Because I think that having something like this that can blow up the planet I am living on is bullshit," Shego stated. "I think that you being here, having to watch this something for 50,000 years is bullshit, and I think that whoever discovered this crap-ass source of power and decided to use it without having a plan to get rid of it or at least defuse it is one of the stupidest fucks that I have ever heard of. So, to sum up, I am going to defuse the damn thing."

"Don't be ridiculous, Shego," Kim protested. "An advanced alien race that can bring people back from the dead can't think of a way to get rid of it. What are you supposed to do?"

"They are an advanced alien race who built a power source they could not get rid of, tried to kill already dead people, gave superpowers to the person they were trying to kill, and put the fate of a world into a little metal disc," Shego pointed out. "Forgive me if I don't put much stock into their intellect. Here," she said, taking off her glove, pulling off Sheila's ring and tossing it to Kim. "Keep this for me. I would be really pissed off if anything to happened to it." Kim caught it, and satisfied that it was in good hands, Shego turned to the obelisk. She took off the amulet, put it back on its chain, put both chain and amulet around her neck and grasped the obelisk.

"That's my girl," Sheila said proudly.

"Of course she is; she's a Goshen," Mim replied, rolling her eyes, and echoing Sheila's earlier words. "Reckless, brash and foolhardy, but always successful and generally having humanity's best interests in mind." Sheila smiled sheepishly at Mim and together they, along with Kim and Ron, watched as Shego attempted to absorb an earth-shattering amount of energy.

For a few minutes nothing happened. Shego made her powers work by taking in energy, and so at first it was not any different than a good soak in the sun. As her reserves topped off though, she knew that she would have to expend some energy or she could short circuit herself. She lit up her free hand, careful not to ignite the one holding the obelisk lest she give some the energy was trying to bleed away from it back to it.

After a few minutes of this, it became apparent to Shego that, while it was working, it would take years to drain the crystal this way. She needed to expend a lot more energy and she needed to do it for an extended period of time. She sighed. "I can't believe some of the shit I get myself into," she thought, but then as she glanced up, she spotted Kimmie. Suddenly, it all made sense. She closed her eyes and concentrated, making not only her hand light up with plasma, but forcing the rest of her body follow suit so that after a few moments, everything but the hand grasping the obelisk was alight with green plasma. It took an inordinate amount of energy and concentration to completely light herself up like this, which is why she only did it rarely and only for a few moments. But with the crystal supplying her with energy as fast as she was expending it, she sustained it, hoping that she could mentally keep up her concentration until the crystal's energy had dropped to a safe level.

Kim fidgeted as she watched from a safe distance. She did not like feeling helpless and she felt that way now. Shego was on her own; with all of the energy she was expending, there was no way anyone would be able to get close enough to touch or help her because she was completely lit up in green flame. And, in spite of her discomfort in being left out of the situation, Kim could not help but be mesmerized by her. "She's beautiful," she thought, and then blushed, realizing the wrong thought had crossed her mind. "The flame is beautiful," she hastily corrected herself.

"Mim-jay is blushing and looking at Junior," Sheila mentioned to Mim. "And they have been wearing our wedding rings ever since they received them. Should we be concerned for their future or proud they are following in our footsteps?"

"I think you are putting the cart before the horse, dear; they are barely friends," Mim scoffed.

"So you keep insisting. And yet Junior, who cares so little for everything that she makes a statue look emotional, panics when Mim-jay is nowhere to be found and nearly has an emotional breakdown in front of everyone when she cannot resuscitate her," Sheila countered.

"Granted, from her actions earlier, it would appear that Junior has feelings for Kimmie-Ann," Mim allowed, purposely leaving out her own conversation with Shego lest it give Sheila more ammunition. "But it doesn't mean that Kimmie-Ann has any feelings for Junior in return."

"We shall see about that," Sheila sniffed, and though she said nothing for the time being, Mim knew the battle was far from over. They continued to bicker about it as Shego continued her efforts on the crystal.

Shego determinedly kept discharging her plasma, but after two hours, she could feel her mental strength flagging and knew that she couldn't keep up the energy discharge for very much longer. She slowly turned her plasma off, extinguishing every part of herself until all of the green flame had died out. She peeled her hand off the obelisk and sank into a sitting position on the ground, mentally and physically exhausted.

Kim was at her side in an instant. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned at how Shego was slumped against the stone column.

"Never better, Princess," Shego replied tiredly before the cranky smart mouth in her reared her sarcastic head. "It reminded me of being kicked into a transmission tower."

"I already explained about that," Kim muttered. "Do you have to keep bringing it up?"

"If it makes you uncomfortable, hell yes," Shego stated with a tired grin. She looked up at the crystal. "Did I do any good at least?"

"I don't know," Kim answered honestly. "But the crystal is all white without the dampener around it."

"Well, that's something, I guess," Shego said, slumping back against the column. "Where's Barney? Maybe she can tell us."

"Barney?" Kim questioned.

"You know purple, like that dinosaur guy," Shego explained. Kim still looked confused. "Never mind."

"I am right here, Green," the being informed them.

"Help me up, Pumpkin," Shego requested, and Kim did. Still a little weak from everything, Shego had no choice but to lean on Kim for support and it made Kim happy for reasons she couldn't quite explain. "Is that thing okay now?" Shego asked. "Can it be left alone without the dampener and not blow up the Earth?"

"I hadn't thought it possible, but yes," the alien answered her. "You are a very determined human."

"That's diplomatic way of calling me a stubborn pain in the ass, but thanks," Shego thanked her. "Can you leave now?"

"Yes, I could, but I do not think it is fair," she replied.

"Why?" Kim asked incredulously. "You have been here, alone, for 50,000 years. How is that not fair?"

"If I leave this plane and join my people, Red and Black can no longer remain here. After you have given me my freedom, it does not seem right to take away theirs," she replied somewhat sadly.

Mim and Sheila glanced between them and came forward. Mim, as per their usual, was the one to speak. "We thank you," she began, "but we have been expecting for this entire episode that our returned life would not last past the end of the adventure. We vowed to enjoy it and the company of our young ladies while it lasted, but we had no illusions that we would remain alive. We know we are dead and we ought to be dead because this is not our time; we do not belong here and we do not want to try to belong here. So while we are touched that you considered us while making your decision, it is a sacrifice that is completely unnecessary."

Kim and Shego's faces fell at their proclamation. They were right of course; they did not belong here, and the reality of them coming to live in the modern world would have been legal, moral and all other kinds of chaos. But Shego loved having them back and Kim, though she had only known them a short time, had grown to love them as much as Shego did. Neither girl wanted them to leave, even though they knew that was how it had to be and how they figured it would be.

"Don't be so melancholy, my dears," Mim pleaded. "You will not lose us. Now that we know how to slip back here, we will come to visit you from time to time, we promise."

"It is not the same," Shego said petulantly.

"No, it isn't," Mim agreed, gathering her in for an embrace. "But it is the only way, and you know that, Junior."

"Doesn't mean I have to agree with it," Shego mumbled into her shoulder while hugging her back.

"You agree with so little. Why should this be any different?" Mim teased her gently. Shego smiled sadly, hugged her for a moment longer and released her. Mim gently touched her cheek and then moved on to Kim.

"Ah, my Kimmie-Ann. It has been so nice to finally get to know you," she said.

Kim hugged her hard. "I am so going to miss you, Aunt Mim," she said.

"And I you, Kimmie-Ann. We are so much alike that it scares me, but I know you will do me proud," she said fondly. "And pay no mind to Junior if you want to visit. The Mansion belongs to you as well as her and I expect you to call every now and again."

"I will, Aunt Mim," Kim promised.

Two very unhappy Goshens stared at one another for a long while, neither one really knowing what to say. Finally, it was Sheila that spoke. "Keep yourself out of trouble, Junior," she advised Shego.

"I promise I won't do anything that you wouldn't do," Shego replied, a small sad smile on her lips. They wanted to say more, but they couldn't, so they left it at that and Sheila turned to Kim to say her goodbyes.

"Goodbye, Aunt Sheila," Kim said, using the honorific for the first time and hoping that Sheila would not be offended.

Sheila was far from it, and she hugged Kim. "Good bye, Mim-jay. It is nice knowing that I have another splendid great-grandniece out there." Kim beamed and Sheila smiled back.

All four of them turned their attention to the figure still seated on the throne. "Can I keep this now?" Shego asked, holding up what was once again an amulet.

"It is no longer needed here, so you may," the being said.

"Thanks," Shego said simply.

"It is I who should be thanking you," the being replied, and slowly disappeared from view.

"Goodbye, my dears," Mim called out as they too faded from view. "We will see all of you back in Middleton."

"Bye, Aunt Mim, bye Aunt Sheila," Kim called back.

"Stay out of my bathroom this time!" Shego ordered genially. An airy chuckle was her response.

"Now what, Princess?" Shego asked when living humans and a naked mole rat were the only beings remaining.

"We go back the way we came and try to make it out of here?" Kim replied. Shego grimaced. She really did not want to go through the traps again.

"Um, KP?" Ron cut in. "What is that door behind the throne for?" Kim and Shego looked where he was pointing and went to check it out.

"Stoppable, you are a genius," came Shego's unexpected praise as she opened the door and saw the stairwell to the outside.

As they were climbing down, Kim was struck with a sudden thought as she replayed the day's events. "You didn't do all of that so you could keep the amulet did you?" she asked.

"It might have been one of my motivations," Shego admitted impishly. "It was a gift after all."

Kim smiled and shook her head. "Speaking of gifts, this belongs to you," she said, handing Shego her ring back.

"Thanks, Pumpkin," she said as she replaced it on her right hand.

"I thought you didn't want it," Kim reminded her.

"I changed my mind," Shego retorted. "Can we go home now?"

"Please and thank you," Kim responded. Then she groaned. "But you are up on kidnapping charges and we need to tell them that Drakken is innocent for once."

"Maybe you guys can drop me off in Mexico and I will catch up the you later?" Shego offered.

Kim shook her head. "No way, José," she said. "We all got into this mess together and now we are all going to get out of it together."

"That means you'll be arrested for robbery; you know that right?" Shego pointed out.

Kim sighed. "Yes, but we'll deal with that when the time comes. Right now, let's just go home."

Shego saluted. "Whatever you say, Pink," she shrugged.

Kim glared at her. "Don't even start with that, Junior," she warned. Shego grinned. Ron looked at them both.

"Come on, buddy," he told Rufus as they boarded. "We are going to sit in the back so that when KP kills her, we won't get any blood on our clothes."


	9. Strange Things

Chapter 9 – Strange things are happenin' to me, strange things

Shego stared out of cockpit window, thinking. Stoppable was asleep in the back, he and his naked mole rat snoring slightly as all of their adventures caught up with them. Kimmie, too, was asleep, which surprised Shego somewhat. On the trip out here, she had steadfastly refused to go to sleep, tired and bitchy though she was. Now, though, they had been in the air all of five minutes when Kim went out like a light. "I guess that is what trust gets you," Shego mused.

She sighed softly to herself. Damn but this trip, and her life for that matter, were not going how she had anticipated. She was quite happy being a villain, thank you; she had no intention of ever going back to the life of a hero. But then, her Nanas had sent Kimmie an e-mail, popped up in her bathroom mirror and nicely turned her world completely upside down. Her former archnemesis was now sleeping like a baby in the passenger's seat, she had just saved the world and she found herself formulating a plan to make sure that her afore mentioned archnemesis and her dopey sidekick would not see any jail time for all of their little adventures. Add in the fact that she had told her employer of the last several years to fuck right off, and well, her life was so screwed up that she was having trouble recognizing it. As if to drive the point home, Kim picked just that moment to wake up, stretch and smile at her, upping the weird just that little bit further.

"Morning, Princess," she said.

"How long was I out?" Kim asked.

"Not that long," Shego replied.

"How long until we get back to Middleton?" Kim asked, curious.

"Middleton is a few hours from here," Shego answered. "But we are not going to Middleton. We are headed back to Mexico."

"You don't get to bail on us, Shego," Kim shot back, but in a friendly way. Strangely, she wasn't angry or upset; she had a feeling that Shego wasn't trying to avoid responsibility but was trying to help them out in some way.

"Hear me out before you get all noble and shoot me down, Princess," Shego retorted. Kim said nothing, but waited patiently and Shego continued. "I think you guys should take the amulet and head back to Middleton. It will go back to the museum, but Bob will get it back for me anyway. You can make up some bullshit story about how you followed me and got it back. And that way, everyone still thinks that you were there to help, not steal it."

"That is totally not fair, Shego." Kim stated. "What happens to you?"

"Fair, not fair, whatever," Shego shrugged. "I have a rap sheet a mile long, Pumpkin. I am wanted in eleven countries. One more theft is so not going to affect me one way or the other. And besides, I get the better end of the deal. I get to relax on a beautiful beach in Mexico and figure out what the hell to do with my life while you have to deal with all of the hero bullshit."

"Like I said, totally not fair, Shego," Kim replied with a grin. "That's why the answer is still 'no'."

Shego sighed. "Quit being an altruistic hero for once, Princess; think of yourself for once," she argued.

Kim didn't answer, but instead smirked at her, very much like Shego herself would have done. It made Shego very nervous. After letting Shego stew and fidget for a few moments, Kim answered her. "All right, Junior," she said unexpectedly. "You have a deal."

"What are you planning, Pumpkin?" Shego asked suspiciously, too on edge to reprimand Kim for the use of the nickname.

Kim had a plan all right, but she was still unsure of it, so she did not answer. It wasn't her first choice of plan, in fact, far from it, but it would do and it would give her a way to be fair to Shego. That last thought made her pause. Never in her wildest dreams would she have ever thought that Shego was someone she would want to play fair with. "Why would I have any plans?" she asked Shego innocently. Shego was not convinced.

The next few hours passed as they flew and in order to make it pass more quickly, Shego used the time to teach Kim how to fly and navigate the hovercraft so that she could get them back to Middleton. Kim picked up on it pretty quickly, but she was still a little unsure if she could fly it and more importantly, land it. Seeing her point, Shego thought about it for awhile until she came up with the idea to interface the Kimmunicator with the hovercraft so that Wade could control it with his computer if the need should arise.

They landed in Mexico without incident and after some discussion, they decided that it would be better if Kim, Ron and Rufus waited until morning to go home. There was still only one bed, though, and there was a bit of a power struggle as to who was going to be politest and let the other girl have it. Shego won and Kim got the bed, but she didn't feel much like a winner when she was trying to get comfortable on the floor.

Morning came, and Kim was up with the dawn, eager to be back home and to get this whole jumbled up mess straightened out. Shego reluctantly got up with them, and after Ron had boarded, they spent a few awkward moment looking at one another as they tried to figure out the right thing to say. Shego decided to plunge in first. "Here, Princess," she said, taking the amulet off from around her neck and giving it to Kim.

Kim looked at it, and raised an eyebrow. "It didn't have a chain when we took it from the museum and one magically appeared yesterday when you were draining the obelisk," she mentioned.

Shego smirked. "One of those mysteries of life, Pumpkin," she replied with a cheeky grin. "Anyway, here it is. Those museum people can have the chain or you can, but please hang on to it. And here," she continued, reaching into her ankle pouch, removing something and flinging it at Kim, "you should take these, too."

Kim held up a set of keys. "These are keys to the Mansion," she guessed.

"Yup," Shego admitted.

"Are there still ghosts in the bathroom?" Kim joked.

Shego grinned. "Probably, just to be pains in the ass."

Kim laughed, then without warning, took her/Mim's ring from off of her right hand and put it in Shego's. "What in the hell is this for, Princess?" Shego asked in confusion.

"Well, you have trusted me with your stuff, so I am returning the favor," Kim replied nonchalantly. Shego looked at her as if she was nuts. "Fine, think of it as collateral then," Kim said. "It is a bargaining chip to make sure I return your stuff."

"You would anyway; it is the hero thing to do," Shego grumbled, but she made no move to give the ring back. Instead, it went in her ankle pouch and Kim grinned. "Yeah, yeah, don't read too much into it, Pumpkin," Shego warned. "Now get the hell out my life for a while, would you?"

"Since you asked so nicely, I suppose," Kim replied. She paused briefly and then impulsively gave Shego a hug. "Bye, Shego," she said and quickly retreated to the safety of the hovercraft. The gangplank went up and the craft took off, while in the meantime, Shego stood there slightly shell-shocked. She shook her head and snapped out of it, smiling bemusedly. She then opened her ankle pouch, withdrew Kim/Mim's ring, looked at it for a couple of seconds, then took off her green glove and put it on.

"What are we going to do, KP?" Ron asked as they made their way back toward Middleton. "Do you actually think they will throw us in jail?"

"I don't know, Ron; they may," Kim admitted. "But we are going to tell the truth regardless."

"I thought we were going to let Shego take the fall," Ron said.

"No way, Ron; it is totally not fair," Kim replied. "I told her I would do that so she would stay put. Otherwise they would have arrested her on sight, she probably would have confessed just to make sure I wouldn't blurt out the truth, and nobody would know that she actually did a good thing for once."

Ron looked at her strangely and Kim ignored him. They had been friends long enough that he knew something was up. He wasn't quite sure what, but something was up and something deep inside of him told him he wasn't going to like it.

The rest of the trip passed with little talking as both of them contemplated being on the wrong side of the law and the jail time that could be associated with being there. Despite of Kim's earlier protests, she was able to handle the hovercraft just fine, and after making it to Middleton, she was able to land in her parents' front yard without incident. The instant they left the craft, though, they were assaulted by Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Possible, Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable, Tim, Jim and much to Kim's surprise, Dr. Director.

"Kim! Where have you been? We were worried sick!" her mother scolded, grabbing her and hugging her tightly.

"I had a mission, Mom," Kim explained embarrassedly.

"You could have told us!" her mother protested. "No one knew what had happened to you after you went after that Shego woman. What happened? Did you catch her? Where is she? And how did Ron get there? No one saw him go after her."

Kim stood there awkwardly, knowing now was the time she needed to 'fess up, but not really knowing exactly how to start doing that. She started to explain, but before she had gotten the first word out, Dr. Director stopped her cold.

"I would advise you not to say anything, Kim," she said evenly. "We need to talk first."

"Oookay," Kim answered, drawing out the word before promptly shutting up.

"Now that you know they are safe, we would like to take Kim and Ron back to headquarters for a debriefing," Dr. Director informed the assembled parents.

"You could have told us you were working for GJ, son," his father chided him.

"Um, yeah, sorry about that," Ron replied sheepishly.

"Let's go, people," Dr. Director ordered. "I have a car waiting." Kim and Ron followed meekly behind her and the three of them were whisked away to GJ headquarters. Once they were there and safely ensconced in a conference room, Dr. Director got right to the point. "Where is Shego and how did she convince you two to knock over a museum?"

"It wasn't all her," Kim protested. Dr. Director lifted an eyebrow. Sighing, Kim started explaining, knowing it was going to sound ridiculous. "So, um, like about 5 or 6 days ago, I got an e-mail from the Middleton Mansion people asking for my help, so I went to check it out. As it turns out, the problem had nothing to do with the Mansion itself and what they wanted to tell me was that the world was going to blow up if I didn't help."

"And who are these mysterious Mansion people?" Dr. Director prompted, sensing some failure to disclose on Kim's part.

"Um, the ghosts of the people who used to live there, one of whom just happens to be my great-great aunt," Kim replied honestly.

Dr. Director didn't bat an eye. "I assume the other one was Sheila Goshen, then?" she asked with no hint of sarcasm.

"Um, yes, actually," Kim replied, surprised that Dr. Director was being very accepting of what she was saying and wasn't questioning her sanity.

"That would explain how Shego figured into the equation," Dr. Director mused. "Please continue."

"Well, Shego was at the Mansion that night," Kim admitted, "and they told us both that we had to find their journals. Aunt Sheila's were at the Mansion, but Aunt Mim's were all over the place and I took a day to track some down. My Nana had a couple of them in Florida and those turned out be the ones we needed. I brought them back, Aunt Mim and Aunt Sheila finally told us how the world was going to blow up and together we figured out how to prevent it, which is why the next day we went to Chicago because the Museum had the only way to prevent it."

"Which I assume is what you stole?" Dr. Director asked.

"We tried to get it back legally first," Kim huffed. "We went to Shego's lawyer, who told us it was legally Shego's and who started the paperwork to get it back. That was going to take too long, so we tried asking for it, but they weren't exactly rushing to hand it over."

"So you stole it," Dr. Director stated flatly.

"We had to!" Kim countered. "The crystal would have fractured without the dampener."

"Slow down, Kim," Dr. Director replied calmly. "Is that what you stole? A dampener?"

"Yes," Kim answered. "It was a small metal disk about this big," she explained holding up two fingers to give an estimate of the size. "As a kid, Shego wore it around her neck until she got hit by the comet." She could have shown it to Dr. Director, of course, but the amulet was fastened around her neck and tucked under her turtleneck and she had no intention of letting her know that it was in her possession.

Luckily Dr. Director didn't ask. "What happened next?" Dr. Director prompted.

Kim continued. "After a brief stop for the night, we went to a temple in Guyana. That is where, according to Aunt Mim and Aunt Sheila, the amulet had to be returned to and by returning it, we could prevent the destruction of the world."

"What did the crystal you mentioned have to do with it?" Dr. Director inquired.

"As it turned out, the amulet was actually well, a dampener that kept the power found in the crystal in check, and since it had been gone for a while, the crystal was becoming highly unstable and was about to explode, taking half of the world with it, which is why the amulet needed to be returned," Kim said.

The questions kept on coming. "How did you find that out?" Dr. Director asked skeptically.

"The alien being told us after all six of us made it to the top," Kim replied.

Dr. Director did the quick math in her head. "There should have been four of you, and that is only if you count the mole rat," she pointed out.

"Um, yeah, well, Shego inadvertently got Aunt Mim and Aunt Sheila kind of sort of resurrected and they helped us get to the top," Kim admitted, knowing exactly how absurd it sounded.

Dr. Director looked at her sharply for several moments before she spoke. "I have three more questions about the 'mission' of yours," she said. "One, if they came back to life, where are Mim and Sheila now; two, how do we know the dampener has stabilized the crystal, and three, where is Shego now?""

"Well, Shego thought it was a bad idea to have the fate of the world resting in a small metal disk, so she used her plasma discharge powers to drain the crystal of its power until it was stable without the dampener," Kim said, answering question number two first. "And with no crystal to baby-sit, the alien could leave and she took the power keeping Aunt Mim and Aunt Sheila alive with her, so when she left, Aunt Mim and Aunt Sheila went back to being dead."

"And Shego?" Dr. Director persisted.

"Mexico," Kim answered truthfully but succinctly.

"Can you be any more specific?" Dr. Director asked wryly.

"A beach town in Mexico," Kim clarified vaguely.

Dr. Director was tired of the game. "Give me the name of the beach town in Mexico," she ordered.

"I don't know it," Kim replied truthfully, and in spite of her irritation at the lack of information, Dr. Director knew Kim was telling the truth and that she would get nothing else from her.

Dr. Director summed up. "So, what you are telling me is that Shego, one of the most wanted and antisocial villains in the world, not only joined forces with you, her highly-social cheerleading archenemy that is always trying to bring her to justice, but she also took it upon herself to rid the world of a potent threat." Kim nodded. "Why, if I may ask, would she do such a thing?"

Kim shrugged. "Her Nanas asked her to," she replied simply.

To Kim's surprise, Dr. Director did not get angry, but instead gave a wry half grin. "If anyone could that and come back from the dead, it would be them," she said with a touch of admiration. Kim and Ron looked at one another with mirrored questioning looks on their faces. Dr. Director answered their unspoken question. "Mim and Sheila were two of GJ's first operatives," she explained. "They were two of the best we ever had, but they never wanted to be tied down, and they were always freelance. They would do one or two missions for us, then decide they wanted to explore an African jungle or something and off they would go."

Kim smiled. "Sounds like something they would do," she said fondly.

"And you share many of their qualities," Dr. Director stated gruffly. "Like impeccable timing for instance." She grabbed a remote on the table and activated the large viewscreen behind Kim, causing it to display a large map of South America. "About six months ago, our sensors detected a large energy surge coming from there," she said, indicating a point on the map. "This energy became more and more unstable as the months progressed, but all of the agents we sent there had no luck in accessing the energy source. You wouldn't happen to have the coordinates from that temple would you?" Kim accessed the Kimmunicator's records and handed it over. Dr. Director punched them into the computer and as everyone expected, the coordinates of temple exactly overlapped those of the energy surge. "So, how exactly did you get in?"

"We had the keys," Kim replied. "They were bequeathed to Shego and I because we were Aunt Mim and Aunt Sheila's heirs."

"Who has the keys now?" Dr. Director asked.

"Shego has both of them," Kim admitted.

"Figures," Dr. Director grumbled. "At any rate, yesterday we detected a noticeable drop in both the instability of and the total energy output coming from that sector and after putting what few clues we had together, we figured that you had succeeded in counteracting the threat."

"That was mostly Shego," Kim pointed out.

"So I gathered," Dr. Director replied. She looked sternly at them both and this is where Kim fully expected the hammer to fall. "You both are should be charged with theft," Dr. Director told them bluntly. "And, you, Kim," she said, turning to face Kim, "should also be charged with aiding and abetting, obstruction of justice and probably a few other things for your failure to completely cooperate in the capture of a known fugitive." Kim spared a thought to the stolen property around her neck and was silently thankful that Dr. Director didn't know about that. "But," Dr. Director continued, "because the two of you were instrumental in saving the world yet again, these charges will not materialize and the museum will be quietly told that you three were on a classified mission for GJ and thus they are to cease and desist in any action against any of you. However, I warn you, if this unlawfulness somehow becomes a pattern, no matter what the eventual outcome of your actions is, even if it is the saving of the world, you will face any and all charges that stem from your actions."

"Meaning this is our one and only 'get out of jail free' card," Ron whispered to Kim.

"Precisely, Mr. Stoppable," Dr. Director interjected, scaring the crap out of Ron who was unaware that she had heard him. "That just about wraps it up here. I would ask in the interest of international security that you do not mention your mission or this conversation to anyone."

"What about Drakken?" Kim asked. "I need to tell the police what happened so he is not charged with kidnapping."

"The FBI and police have already been informed that you are safe and that there was no kidnapping plot," Dr. Director assured her. "However, he has been turned over to our custody for other crimes he has committed." Kim looked satisfied with that. "Very well, are you two ready to go home? There is a car waiting for you at the end of the hallway."

"Dude, am I ever," Ron answered and bounded in the direction of the car. Kim, on the other hand, said nothing and hung back.

"Something on your mind, Kim?" Dr. Director politely inquired.

"Well, um, I was thinking about expanding Team Possible because a friend of mine needs something to do and she would make a great addition to the team," Kim said hesitantly.

"But?" Dr. Director prompted.

"But, um, she is kind of on the wrong side of the law at the moment. But she has been a hero in the past and I was thinking with a little guidance she might fight for the good guys again. But she won't join if she thinks she can be hauled off to jail at any moment," Kim haltingly explained.

"Would you be providing this guidance?" Dr. Director asked, as an insight flitted by and said hi.

"Yes," Kim confirmed, and confusing mix of excitement, unease and anticipation ran through her.

"Well, since the 'friend' in question is wanted in eleven countries, she would have to do something extraordinary to make up for past transgressions before she could join your team with nothing over her head. Turning State's evidence would help, her just saving the world will also help a great deal and it is in her favor that she only has theft and destruction of property on her rap sheet. If you can convince her to join Team Possible, I will see what I can do about her record," Dr. Director promised, knowing that expunging Shego's record would be well worth it if Kim could make her switch teams. At the very least, Drakken would no longer be a threat and the possibility, however remote, of having another Possible/Goshen team was far too tempting to pass up.

"Thanks, Dr. Director," Kim said sincerely and ran off to join Ron. Dr. Director watched her go, an odd look of amusement on her face. "I hope you know what you are getting into, Kim," she chuckled. "Mim sure as hell didn't."

The Possible Residence, one week later

Kim sat at her computer nervously going over the e-mail she was about to send. She had written and re-written it at least three times, but it never seemed to sound very good. Finally fed up, she hit "send" just to be done with it; she was tired of stressing about it and annoyed that she was stressing about it.

Small Beach Town in Mexico, several nanoseconds later

"I've got mail? Who the hell from? Only Drakken knew about this address," Shego grumbled at her laptop as she double-clicked the envelope in the system tray. She blinked in surprise when she saw who it was from, then sighed. "I blame you two for this," she muttered as she began to read what Kim had written.


	10. Outro

Chapter 10 – Outro

The night was quiet and still as a silent figure approached the venerable Middleton Mansion. Kim paused briefly and smiled, thinking of how her life had changed since the first time she had been summoned here. She withdrew the keys to the place from her pocket and opened the front door. She flipped on the lights downstairs, revealing the museum that this level had been turned into and she allowed herself to be distracted from her errand long enough to take a quick look around. She could appreciate the history of the place now that she knew some of its back story and she stood there for a few moments simply absorbing the ambience.

After those moments had passed, she decided to get back on track by switching the lights off downstairs and making her way upstairs. She paused at the parlor, looking carefully around for any indication of the ladies she was looking for. She did not find them, but she did find pictures of them, most of them taken when they were on one of their many adventures. A few of them, though, had been taken in Middleton and the Mansion itself. Those, Kim quickly decided, were her favorites, especially the one that showed a smiling Mim and Sheila clowning for the camera with their arms wrapped around one another. Kim frowned, thinking, and then with a mischievous look in her eye, plucked the picture frame off the mantel. Hey, it was half her house and this picture, she decided, was part of her half.

She left the parlor then and made her way toward the bathroom. She entered, flipped on the lights and stood there, not knowing for sure if this was going to do anything to make Mim and Sheila appear, but not really having any other ideas. The convergence of being in a bathroom and trying to call out a spirit made Kim think of the whole "Bloody Mary" thing that had been all the rage when she was thirteen, but unlike the ancient urban legend, Kim sincerely doubted chanting their names thirteen times would make Mim and Sheila appear. So, she stood there quietly for about five minutes before she started fidgeting because she felt silly staring at her reflection in the mirror. Feeling even sillier, she knocked on the mirror seeing if that would get any response. It didn't, so Kim tried flicking the lights on and off because it seemed like a ghostly thing to do. It still didn't help, so she shrugged and tried calling them by name. Thirteen chants came and went and still they were nowhere to be seen. Giving up on that, Kim waited for another hour, but there was still no word, so, disappointed but not really shocked, Kim gave up for the night, taping a piece of paper to the mirror before she trotted back downstairs and made her way towards home, her purloined picture in hand.

What she failed to notice as she closed and locked the front door, however, were the two white forms that had materialized in the front room. They noticed her, though, and glided to the front room window to watch her departure. They watched her quietly until she was gone, and when she was out of sight, Sheila spoke.

"So, why do you think that Mim-jay graced us with her presence?" she asked Mim.

"If I had to make a supposition, I should think that it has something to do with Junior," Mim decided.

"Why? Couldn't she just be calling on us to inquire as to our health?" Sheila asked facetiously.

Mim rolled her eyes at the bad pun but otherwise ignored it. "It wasn't a social call," she replied confidently. "Kimmie-Ann was here for a purpose. She had that look about her." Sheila wanted to disagree to be difficult but could not because she knew Mim was right. Kim did "have that look about her" and, apparently it was genetic, because it was akin to one that Mim herself had when she was determined to see something through. It made it easy to recognize.

"What about Junior was she here for then?" Sheila asked.

""I haven't a clue. But we should take a look around," Mim suggested. Sheila nodded and away they went, taking practically the same route that Kim had. When they got to the parlor, Sheila noticed the mantle and broke out into a wide smile. "What?" Mim inquired.

"I do believe Junior has been a bad influence. The little scamp thieved one of the pictures that was sitting here," she chuckled, pointing out the spot where the picture frame had formally been.

"Well, this all belongs to her too," Mim replied, using the same justification that Kim had. Sheila grinned but said nothing.

They continued in their rounds, and eventually made their way to the bathroom, spying the message Kim had left in it immediately. They plucked it off the mirror and read it interestedly. It was a typed sheet and appeared to be a printed copy of that newfangled e-mail thing that they had played around with to get Kim to the Mansion in the first place. The lower half was what had been Kim's letter to Shego in which she had asked her to become part of Team Possible. The top half was much more interesting, though, for this is what it read:

"Princess," it said. "I must be out of my fucking mind, but yeah, all right. I'll be back in Middleton in a few days and we can talk about it then."

Mim grinned. "I told you that Possibles can make Goshens be still and behave," she crowed.

"Only because you redheaded minxes manage to befuddle our higher reasoning skills," Sheila countered good-naturedly. "Speaking of which, am I allowed to meddle now?"

"No," Mim stated flatly.

"The world has been saved, Mim, and we no longer are under a time constraint," Sheila argued. "And it is obvious that they care for one another. For heaven's sake, why not?"

"We know that Junior cares for Kimmie-Ann; we have no idea if she feels the same and the obvious answer is that she does not because she already has a beau," Mim replied in exasperation.

"You had a beau and you still cared for me," Sheila pointed out.

"I know I did, but that is part of the problem," Mim admitted. "We have already influenced them a great deal, Sheila, and if we meddle too much, it no longer becomes their decision. It will become a family obligation."

Sheila could see the impetus for the hesitation and she completely understood it, but she felt she had to make one last point. "Whether she would admit it or not, Junior cared for Mim-jay long before we came into the picture," she said and Mim had to admit she was right. "And as far as Mim-jay, true, unlike Junior, she has been less obvious about her affections, but I must point out that she was wearing Junior's amulet and the picture she took was one of the few in which it was obvious we were a couple."

"That is circumstantial at best, Sheila," Mim objected.

"True," Sheila admitted and paused for a moment in thought. "Since it seems we are at an impasse, how about I offer a compromise?" she asked. "I promise not to meddle until we know for sure how Mim-jay feels. If, when the time comes, we discover that her romantic inclinations toward Ronald are legitimate, then the matter is dropped and Junior is on her own. However, if we should discover that Mim-jay harbors some heretofore unrevealed romantic inclinations toward Junior, then I am free to meddle as I please."

Mim looked at her speculatively "You always did drive a hard bargain," she said wryly. "But I will accept, on the condition that we keep our appearances to a minimum unless one of our girls specifically requests it. It will give us less chance to unintentionally meddle."

"I will agree to those terms," Sheila said, a sly smile on her lips as she thought of the first time she had said those words to Mim.

"And why do I suddenly get the sneaking suspicion that history is threatening to repeat itself with a little help from a person who is not supposed to be helping?" Mim asked, raising an eyebrow. Sheila shrugged innocently. Mim shot her a warning smile and held out her hand. Sheila grinned cheekily in response and took it as they slowly faded out from view.


End file.
